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The Sculptures at the Church of St Nicholas, Barfreston,

Photographs by Robert Maxtone Graham

Please click here to see the web site of the Friends of St Nicholas Barfreston : http://www.barfreston.org.uk/

where you will also be able to read a history of the church.

The South Wall, showing the main entrance with its richly decorated porch, the blocked Priest’s door, the carvings in the niche on the upper level, and an impressive array of corbels

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A mask presides over a crowned head; two small masks sit above the decorative frieze on the right

An architectural assembly with buildings linked by a bridge over a river; the remains of a great serpent or fish tail below

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Barfreston South Door

The entrance on the South Wall has a spectacular door frame of triple voussoirs over a tympanum resting on capitals. Though worn, a wealth of details remains, right down to a tiny frieze over the capitals on the right.

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The tympanum shows Christ in Majesty in a mandorla, his right hand raised in blessing, his left holding up a book. He is surrounded by crowned heads, both male and female, and mythical creatures in foliage including Sphinx, Sirens and a Griffin.

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The outer band of voussoirs consists of medieval people of high and low degree and some animals, all enclosed in foliate ovals and decorated with beading. First on the left is a knight in armour with drawn sword, then a lady with trailing sleeves. The knight is mirrored, on the other side, by a similar figure.

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Below the knight, a young musician plays a bowed psaltery. Next we see a seated person who seems to be filling a wineskin from a barrel :

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followed by a man with something on his lap : a zither-type instrument, perhaps?

Nearly at the top of the left side is the bust of a nobleman :

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At the apex of the first voussoir we see an old man with a stick above a seated bishop.

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To the old man’s right, an archer draws his bow :

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and next comes a stone breaker with a mallet :

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and another poor old person who looks like a traveller – perhaps a pilgrim – with a sack and a staff :

This may represent, on a second level, Man’s pilgrimage through life. Coming down to the final few figures, we have two performers, the first bare to the waist:

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left hand on his waist, right hand raised with open palm.

The second performer is similar:

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but wearing a sleeveless tunic over baggy trousers. His left hand is by his ear, his right raised and he seems to be dancing. Below him a person sits astride a large dog or a small lion.

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She is controlling the animal’s muzzle with her right hand like the symbol for Force in the Tarot pack, but this sculpture is thought to be of Samson and the lion. The final figure on this series is the second knight with drawn sword :

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He has lost his legs below the knee but has a barbed mace in his left hand. His tall helmet indicates that he may be a Saracen, in opposition to the Crusader on the other side. In the Middle Ages this would have been interpreted as a battle between Good and Evil.

The Second series of Voussoirs The second band showing 12 sculptured ovals is narrower and sometimes more difficult to make out, but chiefly consists of animals - real and imaginary – familiar from the Bestiary, as well as human musicians and hunters. The first image is quite strange : it seems to depict a large rabbit standing behind a person who is playing a viol, with another creature crouching on his left :

Above them, we see a bear playing a harp while an acrobat tumbles to the right.

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Next, two bears are playing wind instruments – or are they eating honey out of jars?

Then, another rabbit, perhaps, in a strange attitude, which may be clothed.

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NB, the Rev. A H Collins, writing on the sculptures oround the South door at Barfreston published in the Kent Archaeological Society’s journal, vol. 45 in 1933, describes this as a Blemya : click here : http://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/Pub/ArchCant/Vol.045%20-%201933/01/001.htm For further discussions on Barfreston, the work of the Rev A H Collins and Blemyae, please read my article on the Darenth font, based on his work : http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/darenth_font_commentary.pdf Is this a partridge or a quail?

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The sixth image shows a couple embracing :

The figure on the left is seated, the one on the right is standing. This does not look like a Biblical “Visitation” scene, but more like a homely couple by their hearth.

The story seems to continue in the seventh image where there is a pot or bag between them. I am presuming that they are the same couple in both scenes.

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Next comes a horse and rider which must have been a splendid piece of sculpture before it became so worn :

The rider seems to have a lance, so is surely a knight. The ninth sculpture repeats the theme of the mounted figure :

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The horse is facing the other way; the animal below is probably a hound. The eleventh image is a pair of eager hounds, straining at the leash, so still on the theme of noblemen hunting :

What looks like a palm surely stands for “a forest” in the Shakesperean minimalist fashion, and maybe we can see a third animal hiding behind it.

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The penultimate and final sculptures continue the mounted rider theme, but with a difference. The rider above might be a cleric in long robes, or possibly a woman, seated side-saddle. The mount has a strange head : it might be the angle, but in this picture there is a suggestion of an aquiline beak. In any case, we can see the bridle.

The last animal of the series might be a horned goat and the rider may be a monkey. What is the object spitted on its stick? A hare? A baby? In the second case that would imply a devil – possibly seated on another devil – and probably bearing a human soul off to Hell. The narrow inner ring is the most worn and consists entirely of foliage. Below the voussoirs, the pair of capitals on the right is carved with jousting knights on horseback, their lances meeting at the angle of the stone and (on the outer capital) a Griffin confronting a rampant lion with a thrashing tail.

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It has been suggested that the masons working at Barfreston may have been influenced by sculptures in Poitou-Charentes, and in particular, on the façade of Angoulême Cathedral, where there are large numbers of beasts and monsters on friezes and arches as well as on capitals . Here are jousting knights from a frieze at Angoulême:

This image may be intended to represent the eternal battle between Good and Evil, mirrored in the conflict between the Lion and the Griffin :

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The Griffin is of the Senmurv variety : it has only forepaws and then a big, snaky tail ending in a snake-head that is biting its own wing tip. The beast’s head is canine, not aquiline. In fact it is not far off being a Wyvern or Dragon, so all that is evil. The lion, on the other hand is heroic, like a faithful dog. Both creatures are reaching up to reach the ears of the Green Man from whose mouth flows the vegetation on which the animals are standing. Unfortunately the mask is very worn, but you can just make out his cranium, eyeballs, nose and mouth. On the left, the capitals consist of foliage inhabited by a fighting Centaur attacking another Green Mask even more worn that the one on the right :

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The Centaur wears a helmet and is attacking the right ear of the mask with a lance from which hangs a banner. On the other side the mask has to contend with another monster. A small head looks down on the Centaur from the foliage above, while a large bird skulks in the frieze to its right :

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This frieze, carved with monsters, ran above the capitals; but apart from the bird, only a small area above the lion on the right of the entrance can still be seen :

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There are more monsters on each side of Christ on the tympanum :

We can just make out three human-headed creatures : Sphinx and Sirens, and a Griffin above the door. However, the beasts really come into their own on the great Wheel Window on the East end of St Nicholas, a description of which forms the next section of this essay.

The Wheel Window

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A mounted rider can be seen in a niche above the corbel table. Three of the four symbols making up the Tetramorph are depicted on each side of the Wheel Window. A second niche has its sculpture too mutilated to be described. A monster like a bat hangs upside down on the right, above the corbels.

We are accustomed to circular Rose Windows but a Wheel Window is very rare. The one at Barfreston is decorated on both sides with similar schemes based on a Bestiary Arch like a rainbow, over an arch placed upside down to make a circle.

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The lower arch is decorated with vegetation. The spokes of the wheel are enlivened by becoming Column Swallowers, except that these are Spoke Swallowers. Column Swallowers are found frequently in French churches but the only other Spoke Swallowers that I know of in England are a pair on the neighbouring church at Patrixbourne, surely carved by the masons who worked at St Nicholas. In Soria in Spain, however, there is a splendid Wheel Window surrounded by beasts and monsters not so different from the one in Barfreston. This is on the façade of the monastery church of Santo Domingo :

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Below are two churches near Tarragona, whose Rose Windows could be called Wheel Windows : at Verdu and and La Seu Vella of Lleida. Both are quite late and there is no animal sculpture on either window, and only a Virgin and Child in the centre of the window at Verdu.

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Seu Vella, Cathedral of Sta Maria Verdu photographs by Peter Hubert There is an interesting amount of arithmetic going on here. At Seu Vella we have eight spokes, eight occuli and eight heart shapes. Also eight “Compostela shells” & eight rosettes each with eight petals, among the decorations. Eight is, of course, the symbol for infinity – and so is the circle. Castel del Monte near Bari is also based on the number eight. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/398 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castel_del_Monte_%28Apulia%29 The Gothic Wheel Window of Verdu has twelve sections. I am indebted to Peter Hubert for drawing my attention to these Spanish windows, and providing photographs. Returning to Wheel Window at Barfreston, here is the upper half :

It will be seen that all the creatures on it are monsters of one kind or another.

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Starting from the left, we see :

A male Siren, a Scorpion man with a little man’s head in his tail, a Green King mask, a winged lion and a Griffin.

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On the other side are :

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A Harpy, another winged lion with a dragon head, a kind of foliate crab and then a series of Harpies.

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The foliage on the lower arc is also somewhat monstrous in places:

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As for the Spoke Swallowers,

four of the eight can be seen here. The one on the left of this picture looks rather like a playing card King. All of them are decorated with plumes of foliage over their heads.

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Even more similar to a playing card king is this capital by the blocked North Doorway, but we will return to this image, because we shall now look at the Wheel Window from inside the church.

Inside Barfreston Church

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The chancel and choir showing the Wheel Window from inside :

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It will be seen that the scheme on the inside mirrors the outside, with a Bestiary Arch above, and vegetation decorating the lower half.

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There are winged lions and Griffins again, a sort of Green King mask in the centre, and a winged Scorpion Man to his right. The beast with a human head peeping out of his hood may be a Manticore.

Looking back from the choir towards the font and the West End.

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More monsters are depicted on a frieze running along the string courses

Here a peasant is creeping up on three animals that might be a monkey and two rabbits.

North Doorway

The North Doorway is blocked, but there is an interesting pair of capitals on each side. On the left we have a double-bodied Green Monster in high relief and a lion or cat mask in bas relief on the inner side :

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The feline corresponds to a kind of “playing card king” on the opposite side of the doorway :

I have already referred to this image in the context of one of the Spoke Swallowers. Here we see him to the left of the dancing girls in high relief on the right :

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They look curiously Edwardian in their party dresses, and one is reminded of “Alice in Wonderland”, especially juxtaposed with what might be seen as a Cheshire Cat and a playing card king.

This link : http://www.bbc.co.uk/tees/features/tees_trail/tees_croft.shtml has an article about the church at Croft on Tees in Yorkshire which has – among other claims to fame – some marvellous sculpture including an alleged Sheela-na-Gig (female image of Lust) and the connection with Lewis Carroll.

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Finally, let us look at a few of the many corbels displayed around the outer walls :

Corbel table on the Wheel Window wall

Three corbels on left corner

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Three corbels on right corner

Owl mask with rabbit, beardless human mask and Green Devil holding its tongue (or foliage) in both hands. In conclusion, despite the ravages of nature, time and conflicts – and of subsequent restoration – it can be seen that the sculptures of the small church of St Nicholas, Barfreston, are of exceptional quality and quantity. They were executed during the late twelfth century, probably by master masons who also worked at Canterbury Cathedral, as well as at the church at Patrixbourne. The large number of monsters and mythical beasts depicted invites a comparison with other well-known porches and arches not only in England, as at Kilpeck, for example, but in other parts of Europe, such as at Trier, and outstandingly in France.

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Appendix

A comparison with some other arches and sculptures featuring monsters from the Bestiary, and other birds and beasts.

Bestiary arch at St Pierre d’Aulnay, Saintonge Griffins inhabit the vegetation around the innermost voussoirs. The second and third series of voussoirs depict humans, while the outermost band shows a variety of imaginary creatures including Sphinxes and Harpies and other humanoid monsters.

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This is the Narbonne Arch, now in the Cloisters Museum, New York, from whose site I have adapted the picture and the explanation, below : This intricately carved arch is said to have come from a twelfth-century church in Narbonne, southwestern France. It is composed of seven blocks of marble on which are carved eight real and fantastic beasts, comprising an abbreviated visual bestiary. Moving from left to right, we see: a manticore(“man-eater” in Persin) with a man's face, a lion's body, and a scorpion's tail; a pelican, who pierces her own breast so that her blood feeds her young, symbolizing Christ's death and resurrection; a basilisk, a cross between a cock and a scorpion that can kill with its looks; a harpy (half bird, half woman) luring men to their doom with her beautiful voice; a griffin, which has the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion; an amphisbaena or serpent with a head at each end, which can form its body into a circle; a centaur with drawn bow; and a crowned lion. All of these creatures, whether imaginary or realistic, were familiar to many people during the Middle Ages, and all had moral and religious associations with specific lessons to impart. The closest parallel to carving style of the arch can be found in the nave capitals of the mid twelfth-century church of Saint-Paul-Serge in Narbonne, but the original location of the arch remains unknown.' It is an exceptionally well-preserved and encyclopedic example of monsters and fabulous beasts in Romanesque sculpture, an invaluable resource for their classification. In the Bishops’ Museum, Trier, there are two splendid arches, very different in style but similarly decorated with birds and beasts :

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The beasts here are more or less of this world, with the exception of the Griffin, just left of the highest point. However each bird or beast stands in a foliate roundel with a Green Beast spewing out rinceaux and serving as links. The Green beasts are cat or lion masks, upside down and downside up, turn and turn about. In all, there are ten roundels, each with its bird or beast. This arch, however, has a partner, placed at right angles, on which four more fabulous creatures are displayed :

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On the left we see : an angel, a winged lion, and a unicorn. These are followed by a fish, another quadruped and three more birds as well as a winged bull, seen more clearly on the next slide :

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It seems that there were originally four of these arches, forming a kind of stage area which the curator of the museum calls a Lettner, or rood-screen. The explanation can be translated as : Southern half of a Rood Screen from East choir in Trier Cathedral On the arches of the rood-screen are depictions of various beasts as symbols of Christ, the Church, Man and the Devil. The basis for understanding them is the so-called “Physiologus”, the oldest and most widely-read bestiary of the Christian Middle-Ages. Frequently expanded during this period, it was interpreted as moralising in comparison with biblical texts and it was an important basis for the symbolism of animals in the plastic arts. The Narbonne arch is a sober production, very much focused on the allegorical aspect of the fabulous beasts depicted, with decorative foliage kept to a minimum and confined to the frieze below the animals, apart from a few foliate tails. The Trier arch, by comparison, is a riot of foliate decoration inhabited by birds, beasts and an angel. It has, moreover, a number of Green Beast heads forming an integral part of the foliate decoration (as seen on the Shobdon arches, for example), as well as associated motifs on the capitals.

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Where should we look for the first arches endowed with birds and animals among loops of greenery? To the Byzantine triumphal arches derived from classical Rome? To the Lombard kingdom? The Abbey of Pomposa near Ferarra has an atrium or narthex with three arches that seem to hark back to the Byzantine era but may also have been an influence for arches such as we see in Trier. The illustrations of Pomposa Abbey, second quarter of the 11thc are taken from “Romanesque” by Rolf Toman.

The birds and beasts are not confined to the arches, but appear on friezes, on the great cross and on niches on the wall over the arches :

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as well as on, and around, the oculus or circular window where the centre is sculptured with Griffins on each side of a Tree of Life.

Toman calls Pomposa "a truly lovely example of Lombard architecture". “The triumphal arch motif on the narthex" (and the campanile) he says, "are reminiscent of Old St Peter's in Rome". The workers he presumed to come from Ravenna, the master having signed his name, Mazulo. There is a Manticore on the central arch and a centaur on the right arch - otherwise the creatures in the spirals of foliage are less fabulous than natural. I am somewhat reminded of certain sculptures from San Pedro de la Nave, Zamora, such as the friezes above the Sacrifice of Isaac and Daniel capitals :

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Sacrifice of Isaac, capital from San Pedro del la Nave, Zamora, VIIc. and Daniel, capital from San Pedro del la Nave, Zamora, VII c.

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The following quotation is from the Pomposa Abbey web site : At Pomposa, the façade bas-reliefs have one idea in common : man in his temporal and eternal dimension, and the fight between good and evil. The union between eagle, lion and peacock symbolizes man in his earthly existence, composed of body (the lion) and soul (the eagle). The peacock, with its gem-packed feathers and its meat, considered incorruptible, represents the yearning for heavenly beatitude. The sun and the moon represent the passing of time that revolves around the blessing hand of the Eternal Father. In the cross on the right-hand side is the lamb of God, the restorer of the heavenly kingdom. In opposition to the crosses is the dragon, the symbol of evil, and an animal that looks like a panther, the first beast of the Apocalypse. Whether we agree with this interpretation or not, it is nevertheless clear that the Pomposa sculptures are part of the genre of animal allegory and moral lessons derived from the Bestiary. To see Robert Maxtone Graham’s photographs of the sculptures at Barfreston without the text, please click on : http://picasaweb.google.com/JuliannaLees/Barfreston