ARCHITECTURE - Karatunov.net

CH. xxvinj ENGLAND NORMAN PERIOD 251between them is a plain cross with no figure on it 1 . Itwill be remembered that the same unwillingness to attemptthe divine portraiture was characteristic of the earlierByzantine work 2 .MALMESBURY has a magnificently sculptured porchof SculptureatMalmes--T.Tii r r i ilate Norman work with figures of the apostles, six on a buryside, and in the tympanum of the doorway a figure ofChrist, in a vesica supported by angels.The figureshave draperies with thin folds, much convoluted, and anattempt has evidently been made to give them variety ofattitude and expression (Plate CLXIII).Local traditionhas it that the sculptures of the apostles are older thanthe doorway, and some have thought them to be Saxon.I see no reason to doubt their being of the same date asthe rest of the porch. The figureof Christ in the headof the doorway has the same convoluted drapery, and thehand isturned back in the same impossible way as thoseof the apostles.The attempt at greater naturalismspeaks of a more advanced stage of art, and is inconsistentwith an earlier date than the middle of the 12th century.There are other examples of early sculpture in the fagadeof Lincoln cathedral, and on slabs that have been foundat Chichester, which from their style probably belong tothe end of the nth or to the isth century, though theyhave been supposed by some to be earlier.The Prior's door at ELY (Plate CLXIV) is a very Sogguiebeautiful piece of late Norman work. In the tympanumis the same subject as at Rochester, and the arch isenriched with many devices of scrolls and interlacingornaments, among which small figuresubjectsare introduced.The flat border of foliage surroundingisreminiscent of Byzantine design,the archiKeyset, op. tit. Plate 94.2 *> SU P- v l L PP- 4*> "4-