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twelfth century, for example Cormac’s Chapel at Cashel
and Rosecrea. However, they are usually more sharply pointed than those in
English and Norman churches.26 An even more unusual feature of
the gable at Patrixbourne is that it contains a round-headed niche in
which there is an Agnus Dei — albeit so badly damaged that it is
scarcely discernible. The niche is rather out of scale with the gable and
it has been viewed as a later addition.
In addition to the damage to the niche, much of the
figurative sculpture on the tympanum is badly damaged, and there are signs
of restoration on the portal as a whole. The best-preserved figures are
the non-iconic grotesques (bottom right) and this suggests that the damage
may have been a deliberate act during the Civil War, and is not due to
weathering. At the height of the iconoclism Puritans attacked the palace
built for Archbishop Cranmer at nearby Bekesbourne and it is possible that
at least some of the damage to the carved figures at Patrixbourne,
including that over the priest’s door, may have been done at the same
time. There was some repair and restoration of the portal in the
nineteenth century, probably when the church was thoroughly restored by
Scott in 1849, and further work may have been carried out in the 1939
restoration.
Although the tympanum is defaced there is a consensus that
the central figure is Christ and that he is flanked by at least two angels
(Plate IV). This is a fairly common motif: |
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other
carved Romanesque examples include the groups in the centre of the tympana
of the west door at Rochester and the Prior’s Door at Ely. Whereas at
Rochester there are only two angels and the evangelists’ symbols can be
clearly seen completing the group, Patrixbourne’s tympanum is now so
weathered that it is hard to identify the other figures. In 1882, when the
carving may have been in slightly better condition, Scott Robertson wrote:
‘The tympanum shews our Lord in majesty; on His right hand are three
figures, two of whom seem to be angels; the third kneeling in the corner
does not appear to have wings. On our Lord’s left hand, the figures are
not easily distinguishable’. It is no longer possible to make out the
smaller figures in such detail, but the donor must be a candidate for a
kneeling figure without wings at the bottom of the group.27 The
lintel is so deep that it almost looks as though the tympanum was
conceived as two separate parts. It is divided into three more or less
equal parts across its width with pairs of addorsed (back-to-back), winged
griffins on each side and what seems to be a seated figure in foliage in
the centre. The grotesques are quite clear but the figure is damaged —
another possible indicator that the portal was deliberately defaced, as
Musset and Kahn believe. The Rochester tympanum is supported by a lintel
with sculptures of ten figures.28 |