The Ideological Antecedents of the Rolls-Royce Radiator Author(s): Erwin Panofsky Source: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society,

Vol. 107, No. 4 (Aug. 15, 1963), pp. 273-288 Published by: American Philosophical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/985670 . Accessed: 26/09/2013 10:04
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THE IDEOLOGICAL

ANTECEDENTS

OF THE ROLLS-ROYCE RADIATOR

ERWIN PANOFSKY
ProfessorEmeritus of the History of Art, Institute forAdvanced Study (Evening Lecture,November 8, 1962) 1. WITHOUT going so far as Thomas Gray, who said of the Englishpeople that"the onlyproofof theiroriginaltalentin matters of pleasureis their skill in gardening and layingout of grounds,"we must admit that one of the greatestBritishcontributions to European art is that "Garden Revolution" which, from the second decade of the eighteenthcentury,replaced the formal ItaloFrenchgardenof the preceding era with what is called an "English Garden" in all languages: "EnglischerGarten"in German, "Jardin Anglais" in French and "Giardino Inglese" in Italian.' The "formal"style of gardening,reachingits climax in Le N6tre's Versailles,had proudlyimposed upon the infinity and irregularity of nature the finiteness and order of a littleuniverseconceived by man-a universecut out of (and off from)the greatoutdoorsand rationally organized into a geometrical pattern of avenues suitablefor the statelyprogressof carriages and the caperings of horsemenratherthan for solitarywalks, parterresdesigned after the fashion of oriental carpets,trees and hedges carefullyclipped into stereometrical shapes, "mazes" which pose neat problemsin topology, and bodies of water disciplinedto the regularcontours of basinsand canals (fig. 1). in The Moralist (1709), seems Shaftesbury, to have been the first to stressthe basic contrast betweensuch "tailored" gardens and untouched nature "where neitherArt nor the Conceit or Caprice of Man has spoiled" the "genuineorder" of God's creation. "Even the rude Rocks,"' he feels,"the mossyCavern,the irregular unwrought and brokenFalls of Waters,withall the Grottoes, horridGraces of the Wildernessitself, as representingNature more,will be more engaging, and appeal with a Magnificancebeyond the formal Mockeryof princely Gardens." It took only one

I See M. L. Gothein,Geschichteder Gartenkunst(Jena, 1926) 2: p. 367 ff., (English translation: A History of 2 Discourses Garden Art (London and Toronto, n.d.) 2: p. 279 ff.). on Art (New York, Paperback Edition, Cf. F. Kimball, "Romantic Classicism in Architecture," 1961) 13: p. 210 f. 3 Moral Essavs 4, "On Taste." Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6th ser., 25(1944) : 95 ff. PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, VOL.

further step to postulatethat the gardens themselves conform to the "genuineorder of nature" insteadof contradicting it. Where Le N6tre had said thatgood gardensmustnot look like woods, JosephAddison in the Spectatorof 1712 painted the image of an ideal garden which conforms to the laws of "natureunadorned"(as Pope was to express it seven years later). He preferswild flowers to plantsartificially bred and findsit delightful "not to know whether the next tree will be an apple, an oak, an elm, or a pear." He "would rather lookupona treein all its abundance and diffusion of boughsand branches, than when it is cut and trimmed intoa mathematical figure"; and he "cannotbutfancy thatan orchardin flower looks infinitely more delightful than all the little labyrinths of the most finished parterre." To conceiveof a garden as a piece of "nature unadorned"is of course a contradiction in terms; for, as Sir Joshua Reynolds was judiciouslyto remark in his Discourses on Art, "if the true tasteconsists, as manyhold,in banishing everyappearanceof Art or any traces of the footsteps of man,it would thenbe no longera garden."2 He therefore prefersthe definition of a garden as "Nature to advantage dress'd"; and it was this concept(well expressedby Pope whenhe admonishesthegardener "to treatthe Goddess [Nature] like a modestFair,/Nor overdressnor leave her whollybare")3 whichwas to governthe practice of the great English gardenersof the eighteenth centuryfrom Bridgeman,the original designer of Stowe (creditedwiththe significant invention of the so-called"Ha-ha," the sunkenwall or fence which encloses and protectsthe garden without it from visibly separating thesurrounding countryside) throughWilliam Kent, "the true fatherof modern gardening" (who finished Stowe and designed Kew and KensingtonGardens, and of whom Horace Walpole in his Essay on Modern Gardenswas to say that,"while Mahometimagined one Elysium,Kent createdmany"')to Lance-

107,NO. 4, AUGUST, 1963 273

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274

ERWIN PANOFSKY

[PROC. AMER. PHIL.

SOC.

RWR FIG. 3. Stowe (Stafford), gardens in bird's eye view.

beover architecture of gardening the superiority us with a succespresenting cause the gardener, prospects,is able to evoke an sion of different is wherethe architect emotions of variety infinite lot ("Capability") Brown, who dominatedthe and of beauty limitedto inspiringthe feelings scene up to his death in 1783 (figs. 2, 3). 5 and how conducivethese emotional grandeur; nature dress'd," advantage "to Yet, even when of the new English gardenwere to potentialities nature. The new,Englishgardenwithits remains was demonstratedsentimentality downright casual thoughartfully rollinglawns,its seemingly the before appearanceof Lord years forty exactly arrangedclumps of trees,its ponds and brooks, Pope's answer to Alexander book-in (Kent made it axio- Kames' footpaths and its serpentine of the completion on congratulations Gay's John line") retains maticthat"natureabhorsa straight Twickenham: at garden famous Pope's preciselythose "natural" values and accentuates knowto suppress:the youlovers gardenintended truth whichtheformal 'tistrue-this Ah,friend! grow. . . mygardens rise, and apIn vainmystructures surprise, variety, qualitiesof picturesque Shade, thechequer'd WhatarethegayParterre, ("He gains all points," says parent infinitude Colonnade the ev'ning Bower, morning The Pope, "who pleasingly confounds,/Surprises, minds ofuneasy recesses Butsoft varies and conceals the bounds") ; 4and, consewinds.? thepassing into To sighunheard part deerin somesequester'd the power of appealingto the emotions So thestruck quently, heart. his in arrow the die, to down Lies and objective of sense the instead of gratifying rational order. In his Elements of Criticism In words like these there shines, indeed, to (1762) Henry Home (Lord Kames) maintains quote Pope's own words,"a lightwhichin your;/ Jonesand Le Notrehave selfyou mustperceive it not to give."6
FIG 1. Versailles, gardens,Bassin de Bacchus.

II.

Small wonderthatthe "modern"garden,symbolic of the "all-bearingearth" in its entirety, withincidental to be strewn theoutset from tended towers, "follies," features(tempietti, architectural which of the style ruins) artificial even bridges, all kindsof "taste"-from the classicalor reflects would-beclassical to the "Egyptian,"the "Chinese" (fig. 4), the "Gothick" or the "rustic"; thatthe Gothicstyle we may remember whereby
FIG. 2. Stowe (Stafford), gardens seen fromthe house.
4Moral 5See E. Gradmann, "Das englische Aquarell," FestschriftHans R. Hahnloser (Basel and Stuttgart,1961), p. 413 ff.,particularlyp. 416. 6 Moral Essays 4, "On Taste."

Essays 4, "On Taste."

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VOL. 107, NO. 4, 1963]

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a~~~~~~~~~~~

Chelsea.8 Literally in love with Palladio, he a special trip to Vicenza and its enundertook withthe old master's himself vironsto familiarize General works; he designedthehouse of a friend, in his own possesa Palladio drawing Wade, after sion; and about the same time (1723-1725) he his own country patterned house, Chiswick (fig. 5), afterthe model of Palladio's Villa Rotonda,9 builtabout 175 years before(fig. 6) and in turn harkingback to the Pantheon.

FIG. 4. Kew, royal gardens,pagoda.

was lookedupon as something derivedfrom"untouchednature,"its pointedarches,noncolumnar supports and crispor curlytracery beingbelieved to derive from unsquared trees. And yet the seriousseculararchitecture of the period,bothin townand country, was dominated by a movement diametrically opposed to the subjectiveand emotional: Palladian classicism. This "Palladianism," temporarilysidetracked by the more of Christopher Baroque inclinations Wren (16321723) and JohnVanbrugh(1664-1726), had been initiatedby the same Inigo Jones (1573-1652) whomPope alignswithLe N6tre,and it was not onlyrevivedbut dogmatized at the same timeand in the same illustriouscircles which produced the "Garden Revolution." The most important of these circles was that of HenryBoyle,Third Earl of Burlington (16941753). Designerand/orspiritus rector of numerous severely classicizing structures(his town house was builtby himself in cooperation withhis mentor, Colin Campbell, the authorof the Vitruvius Britannicus),he was sufficiently appreciative of Inigo Jonesto acquireand to re-erect the battered gatewayof the latter'sBeaufortHouse in
7 According to the Encyclopedia Britannica the term "Palladianism" is "specificallyapplied to the architecture of the period 1715-1760 in England, when British taste relied heavily on the designs of Inigo Jones who had introducedHigh Renaissance architectureinto England." For the all-important role of Lord Burlington,which had tended to be severely underestimated,see F. Kimball, "Burlington Architectus," Jour. Royal Inst. British Architects 34(1927): 675 ff.,and 35(1928): 14 ff.; and most particularly,R. Wittkower,The Earl of Burlington and William Kent (York Georgian Society, Original Papers, Number Five, 1948), followed by an article in Bolletino del Centro Internazionale di Storia d'Architettura AindreaPalladio, no. 2 (Vicenza, 1960).

i_ V

FIG. 5. Chiswick (Middlesex), Chiswick House, portico (after R. Wittkower, The Earl of Burlington and WXillam Kent).
8 See Pope's amusing poem entitled "The Beaufort House Gateway at Chiswick":

"I was brought from Chelsea last year Batter'd withwind and weather; Inigo Jones put me together; Sir Hans Sloane Let me alone; Burlingtonbroughtme hither." 9 Sir John Clerk, the author of The Country Seat (1727), called Chiswick "properly a villa and by much the best in England"; see J. Fleming, Robert Adam and his Circle in Edinburgh and Rome (London, 1962; also Cambridge, Mass., 1962), p. 32.

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276

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[PROC. AMER. I'HIL. SOC.

happily been termed "picturesque classicism": of Palladianismwas adapted to the requirements and habitability; a still statelybut more intimate graceof by theopulent was enlivened its austerity Roman decorationrecentlypopularized by the of Herculaneum. discovery At the same time,however,at which Robert the very"classical" NorthPavilion Adam erected of HopetounHouse (fig. 7, 1752)12 or the Great Hall at Castle Ashby (1759, when his stylehad maturity),'3 he designed reachedits characteristic towers,"follies"and churches "Gothick"bridges, artificial (fig. 8).14 He was fond of inventing the Rhenish and the of -~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~------------ruins,15 impression Romanthat mixture of churches, representing FIG. 6. Vicenza, villa rotonda. whichhas come to be esque and Gothicelements Yet this austerePalladian most intimately col- known, not very accurately,as "Rheinischer inspired him,in December1757, laborated withWilliamKent. While as an archi- Uebergangsstil," as and floridas anya picturesque with fantasy tect Kent inclinedto share, occasionally even to in the nineteenth century(fig.9)16 thing devised surpass,the classicistic leaningsof his high-born The same decade (1760-1770) which saw the friend,10 he indulgedin distinctly "Baroque" inof Greekand "Etrusexploration systematic ventions as an interior decorator;and he was, we first the publicationof can" also saw painting vase recall,themostadvancedamongthecontemporary The The term and Otranto. Ossian Castle of garden designers. Thus Burlington'sChiswick, of transcendency like most important countryseats of the time, "sublime"-withits implications combinesan uncompromisingly "classical" style in relationto the accepted standardsof formal of architecture with an essentially moderntreatment of the surrounding grounds. In fact,the garden at Chiswick was laid out, in 1717, in strictly "formal"mannerand "anglicized,"as far as possible, only while the Palladian villa was being built fromca. 1725. III. With some modifications but essentiallyunabated, this antinomy persistedin the following phase of English architecture which was -largely dominated by RobertAdam (1728-1792) and his brothers. This "Adam style"-which, at the hands of a Jacques-Ange Gabriel,was to develop " intothe "styleLouis XVI" on the Continent is a successful to reconcilethe orthodox attempt Palladianism of the Burlingtons and Campbells with the style of Vanbrugh,and the result has
See, for example, the Temple of Concord and Victory at Stowe, illustratedin Kimball, "Romantic Classicism in Architecture,"fig. 8. 11 See F. Kimball, "Les Influences anglaises dans la formationdu style Louis XVI," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6th ser. 5(1931): 29 ff.,231 ff. For English influence on Continentalpainting,cf. J. Loquin, La Peinture d'histoire en France de 1747 a 1785 . . . (Paris, 1912)-; E. K. Waterhouse, "The British Contribution to the NeoClassical Style in Painting," Proc. British Academy 40 (1955) :57 ff.
10

House,north FIG. 7. John and RobertAdam,Hopetoun pavilion (afterJ. Fleming,RobertAdaoli anidHis and Romne). Circlein Edinburgh

14 Fleming, ibid., pls. 23, 24, 25 (all between 1749 and 1753) ; pl. 87 (1759). It should be noted that at this time the Gothic style was not as yet accepted for serious domestic architecture; a Gothic manior such as Inveraray Castle (Fleming, pl. 20), designed about 1745 by Robert Adam's father, William (who otherwise worked "in the true Palladian taste"), is rather exceptional at that time. 15 Fleming,ibid.,pl. 80, and p. 259, fig. 14. 16 Fleming, ibid., p. 243, fig. 12.

12 Fleming, op. cit.,pl. 37. 13 Fleming,ibid., pi. 86.

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VOL. 107, NO. 4, 1963]

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In short, the Englisheighteenth century stands, at one and thesametime, bothfarto theright and far to the leftof contemporary developments on the Continent: a severely formal rationalism, tending to look for supportto classical antiquity, contrastsbut co-exists with a highlysubjective emotionalism, drawing inspirationfrom fancy, natureand the mediaevalpast,which, forwantof a betterexpression,may be describedas "Romantic." And thisantinomy ofopposite principles -analogous to thefactthatsocial and institutional lifein Englandis morestrictly controlled bytradition and convention, yet gives more scope to individual "eccentricity" thananywhere else-can be observed throughout the history of Englishart and letters. IV. Amongthe mostimpressive and engaging Englishinventions, forexample, are thedrolleries disporting themselves on the marginsof illuminated

FIG.

8. Robert Adam, designs for a Gothic "Folly," a Gothic church and a Gothic tower, Captain C. K. Adam Coll. (after J. Fleming,op. cit.).

beautyand rationalcomprehensibility-began to be transferred from literature and naturalscenery to art-with the resultthatthe cool classicismof Da GavinHamiltonwas opposedby a hostof painters specializing in highlyinflammatory, oftenin-tentionally horrid subjects;17 and the epithet "sublime" came to be applied to Michelangelo whomEnglandcan claimto have rescuedfrom the disapprobation of the Continental academies.18
17 See S. H. Monk, The Sublime; A Study of Critical Theories itnXVIII-Century England (Ann Arbor, Michigan, Paperback Edition, 1960), pp. 191-202. 18 Monk, ibid., 173: "Michelangelo comes steadily into greater favor after 1750." The climax of his glorification was reached in Fuseli and Reynolds; see, e.g., Reynolds' Fifth Discourse (December 19, 1772), ed. cit., p. 76 f.: "Michael Angelo has more of the Poetical Inspiration; his ideas are vast and sublime. ... To the question therefore, which ought to hold the firstrank, Raffaelle or Michael Angelo, it must be answered that if it is to be given to him who possessed a greater combinationof the higher qualities of the art than any other man, there is no doubt but Raffaelle is the first. But if, as Longinus thinks, the sublime, being the highest excellence that human compositioncan attain to, abundantlycompensates -the absence of every other beauty, and atones for all other deficiencies, then Michael Angelo demands the preference." The Fifteenth Discourse of December 10,

FIG. 9. RobertAdam, mediaevalfantasy, London,Sir Soane'sMuseum(after John J.Fleming, op. cit.). 1790, is almost entirelydevoted to the praise of Michelangelo and constantreferenceis made to his "sublimity," his "most sublime and poetical imagination,"etc. (ed. cit., pp. 238, 240). An interesting and relativelyearly application of the term "sublime" to architectureis found in James Adam's unfinished essay on architecturecomposed in November 1763 (Fleming, op. cit., p. 317): "[domes] are of themselves one of the most beautiful and most sublime inventionsof this or any other art."

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[PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

fromca. 1250 (fig. 10).19 Based on manuscripts the fablesor the exempla used by preachersbut as oftenderivedfromactual experienceor sheer Hogarth foreshadow these drolleries imagination, Bosch; theyrun and Rawlinsonas well as Jerome to observedreality the wholegamutfromsharply and the phantasmathe scurrilous, the grotesque, goric. And when theycrossedthe Channelthey were mosteagerlyacceptedand developedin the regions adjacent to it, viz., in north-eastern France and in the Netherlands. But while the those who, like artists-particularly Continental the greatJean Pucelle,adaptedthe new vogue to tasteof the Royal Domain-attempted, therefined was concerned, as faras the mode of presentation to reconcilethe style of the marginaldrolleries a sharpdichotpictures, withthatof theprincipal omy can be observedin England. In the same schools in which we findthe drolleriesat their the at timeseven in thesame manuscript, liveliest, principal pictures are dominatedby a solemn the hieratic. The earliest formality approaching drollfull-fledged exhibiting datable manuscript eries, the Rutland Psalter at Belvoir Castle executedfor Edmund de Laci or de Lacey, Earl a Christin of Lincoln (d. 1257 or 1258), contains

?7~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I

FIG. 11. Belvoir Castle, The Rutland Psalter,

Christ in Majesty.

Psalter, The Rutland FIG. 10. Belvoir Castle, Drolleries.

19 See L. M. C. Randall, "Exempla as a source of Gothic marginal illumination,"Art Bulletin 39(1957): 97 ff.,with excellent bibliography.

and unapproachformalized Majesty morestrictly at producedon the Continent able than anything thesametime(fig. 11).20 century-the centurythat witThe following of Crecyand Poitiersand the nessedthevictories of English as the language of the re-emergence nobles,the educatedand the law courts-21 proand nearly-contemporary duced three important in the domainof Gothicarchitecture innovations thetwocontrastive which maybe said to epitomize the firstreprehere under discussion, principles of the irrational;the second a a triumph senting of of the rational; the thirda triumph triumph both. century English Throughout the thirteenth was essenlikethaton theContinent, architecture, tially dominatedby straightlines and "simple" curves,that is to say, circulararcs. It was in England that these "simple" curves began to be
20 E. Millar,The Rutland Psalter (Oxford,1937), fol. here shownare on fols. 104 and 112 v. The drolleries 107v. 21 See G. M. Trevelyan, History of England (New 1953) 1: p. 309 ff. York,PaperbackEdition,

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replacedby "compound"curves,each of themresultingfromthe mergerof at least one convex with at least one concave element. The result was the "decorated,""flowing" or-to call it by its most usual thoughnot very accuratename"'curvilinear" style which flourished in England from ca. 1320 to the end of the centuryand playedan important part in the formation of the "Flamboyant"phase of the Gothic style on the Continent.22 The examplesof this "curvilinear" style, such as the "Bishop's Eye" of Lincoln Cathedral(executedshortly after 1319),23 theeast windowof Hawton (second quarterof the fourteenth century) or thesomewhat latereastwindow of Carlisle,thecurvesof whichare said to require the plotting of no less than263 circles,24 give the impressionof an ordered chaos comparableto those "close-knitand involved intricacies" of 25 a dimrecollection earlyinsularornamentation of which may indeed have played a part in the emergence of this typeof tracery(fig. 12). But onlya fewyearsafterthe formation of the "curvilinear"style there arose a counter-movementso resolutely rational and sober-minded that it was never accepted on the other side of the Channel: the "perpendicular style." Announcing itself in St. Stephen's Chapel in Westminster Palace, it appears fullydeveloped in the choir, south transept and cloistersof GloucesterCathedral, all startedin the fourth decade of the four22

FIG.

12. Hawton, church,east window.

M. M. Tamir, "The English Origin of the Flamboy- mumof windowspace witha minimum of effort ant Style," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6th ser., 29(1946): 257 ff.; J. Bony, French Cathedrals (London, 1951), p. 15. and expense (so that "so much more window Bony correctlyemphasizes that the sources of the Flam- could be had for the same money"), but also, I boyant Style are not exclusivelyEnglish, that"symptoms" believe, in deference to thesecond,"rightist" trend of it appear in French court art even before 1300, and that occasionally suppressed but neverabsenton Engit may have drawn upon the vocabulary of "miniatures, lish soil,thetracery was simplified intoa uniform ivories and tombs" rather than architecture. But he no grill composed, in principle, of rectangular fieldsless correctly adds that such Continental experiments curvesbeingthe trefoil arches were "short-lived,neither flourishingnor developing to the onlyremaining any extent"; and it seems probable that the very "mini- whichconvert each of the rectangles into a little atures and ivories" he has in mind (such, for example, as "niche" suitable for the receptionof a single the Belleville Breviary by Jean Pucelle and his collabofigure (fig. 13). What had been an intricate rators) are not quite independent of insular influence. patternof tracery,its irregularinterstices pre23 For the custom of calling the circular windows of the south and north transepts of Lincoln Cathedral, re- cariouslyfilledwithglass, became an expanse of spectively,the "Bishop's Eye" and the "Dean's Eye" (a glass neatlydivided by a systemof coordinates. custom documentedfrom as early as 1220-1235), see the But the two systems co-existed formanydecades versified Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln; reprintedin 0. until the perpendicular style won out to hold Lehmann-Brockhaus, Lateinische Schrif tquellen zur Kunst in England, Wales und Schottland vom Jahre 901 sway up to the belated advent of the Italian bis zum Jahre 1307 (Munich, 1955-1960) 2: p. 27 ff.,no. Renaissance. 2372. with the perpendicularstyle Simultaneously 24F. Bond, Gothic Architecturein England (London, 26Bond, op. cit., p. 494 ff.; G. G. Coulton, Art and the 1906), p. 494. 25 These expressions are borrowed from Giraldus CamReformation (New York,1928),p. 19 ff. Cf.J. H. Harbrensis' remarkable description of an Irish manuscript, vey,"St. Stephen's Chapeland the originof the Perpenfor which see below, p. 285. dicularStyle,"Burlington Magazine88(1946): 192 ff.

teenth century.26 In an attempt to obtaina maxi-

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280

ERWIN PANOFSKY

[PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

essentials. Yet, when strippedto its structural vaulteven topsy-turvy fantastic, this apparently and to be no less practical revealsitself ing system organization thanis the perpendicular economical of the walls and windowswith whichwe findit combinedand whose rigid schematism normally creates a strong visual contrastto its fanciful exuberance. Since all the radii of all the conoids have the same lengthand the same curvature, the size and shape of the voussoirs could be standardized. The surfacesbetweenthe conoids large,thinpanels. And from couldbe constructed ofthewhole and lightness flatness thecomparative fact system,combinedwith the more important that conoids, in contrastto rib vaults, exert a greatlyredownwardratherthan lateralthrust, in a normal operating forces ducedthedeformative Gothicvault. As a result (even in such extreme cases as the Chapelof HenryVII), theuse of fan and vaults permitsa maximumof fenestration of buttressing. requiresa minimum (even where sense of practicality This uncanny it conceals itselfbehind an almost paradoxical

FIG. 13. GloucesterCathedral,choir.

therecame intobeingthe thirdof the innovations alluded to above (it, too, rejectedon the Continent): the fan vault which,to the non-English (fig. renverse' ofa monde eye,givestheimpression thenormalGothicribvault from 14) 27 It differs of triangles in thatit does not consistof spherical archesbeinglonger sizes (the transverse different ones,and thediagonalarches thanthelongitudinal inverted beinglongerthanboth) butofcongruent, one by rotating conoidswhichcan be constructed arch") around curve (viz., halfofa "four-centered a verticalaxis and may be decoratedwith equidistantradial ribs of equal length. Where the in a keystone, normalGothicrib vault culminates surface a plateau-like theapex ofa fanvaultforms bythebases oftheconoids; and,to make delimited doublyconof the normalsituation this inversion spicuous,the Englishbuildersliked to drop from these "plateaus" huge pendentswhich tend to not unlike that of stalactites produce an effect (fig. 15).
27 For its development fromthe "lierne" vault, see particularly F. Bond, An Introduction to English Church Architecture (London, 1913) 1: p. 339 ff.

D | !E1!

?~~~M

'

FIG.

14. Gloucester cloisters, Cathedral, SouthGallery.

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VOL. 107, NO. 4, 1963]

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at of Maaseyck-the earliest Northernattempts conceptof man in art. But a humanistic reviving even at this early stage a tension can be felt of theEarly Chrisclassicality thediluted between derived from Hellenistic tian forms ultimately tendand a barbaric,antihumanistic prototypes feapotentin the ornamental ency,particularly tures,whichseems to be rootedin an aboriginal Irish tradition.28 Celtic,particularly The name of Ireland raises the questionas to how we can explain this curious and persistent which,as I phrased it, places English antinomy art both far to the rightand far to the leftof developments.This is one of those Continental questions which the historiancannot hope to to pose answer-and is perhapsnot even entitled -but cannot help musing about. First of all, to occuEngland,an island unusuallyvulnerable pationup to the NormanConquestbut practically was always conto attackever after, impervious scious of its "distance"fromthe rest of Europe. structure theethnic Secondly(and consequently), by the was determined of the English population o -e_, -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~------"Iberians," of pre-Celtic successivepredominance Abbey, Chapel of FIG. 15. London, Westminster Celts, Anglo-Saxons,Norsemen,and Normans; Henry VII. fromthis resulted(apart fromthe fact that the Englishlanguagebecame,as it did, a uniquecomof the Germanic and the Romance) a pound aspect appearance) is a thirdand veryimportant of whathas been called "wild interaction constant of a nation oftheEnglishcharacter-thecharacter and good sense and the "deep feeling Celtic fancy" reyet rightly and conservative both "romnantic" outlook and blessed of the Nordic races."29 Thirdly,in contrastto nowned for its positivistic of Germany, Englandhad been and tech- themajorportions forcraftsmanship witha specialaptitude in contrastto but Romans; the by conquered that,while nical invention. We may remember not resulted this had conquest and France, Spain the Burlingtonsand Campbells developed their factin the "The greatest in real Romanization. a evolved Adams the while orthodoxPalladianism, "is a Trevelyan, says of the island," history early their "picturesque" version of classicism, and not succeed did the Romans fact-that negative Kents,and Brownslaid out whiletheBridgemans, LatinizingBritainas theyLatintheir modern, sentimentalgardens, the New- in permanently 30 Fourthly,England was ChrisFrance." ized comens, Cowleys, and Watts devised and perfected the steam engine and the Lewis Pauls, tianizednot, as mightbe expected,fromFrance at once: thenorthquarters twodifferent Hargreaves, Cromptons,and Arkwrightsde- butfrom (converted from Ireland the country ern of part veloped the spinningmachine. by St. Patrickas earlyas the secondthirdof the fifth century),whence St. Columba,establishing V. himselfon the Island of Iona in 563, carried therationalisWherethetimeswerepropitious, to Western Scotland and NorthumChristianity in Englishart sought, tendency tic or conservative Rome whence from partdirectly bria; thesouthern in classical we recall, supportand nourishment 28 For a brief probof thegenetic antiquity. This applies not onlyto the Palladian and luciddiscussion conrevivals-but also to the very lemsposedby earlyinsularart see C. Nordenfalk's revival-or, rather, Early Medito A. Grabarand S. Nordenfalk, beginningsof insular art where Mediterranean tribution Century eval PaintingfromtheFourthto theEleventh influences can be observedin the Northumbrian (Skira Book,1957), pp. 109-125, p. 118 ff. particularly 29 Trevelyan, crosses and such manuscriptsas the Codex op. cit.1: p. 68. 30 Trevelyan, ibid.,p. 30. Gospels,or theGospels theLindisfarne Amiatinus,

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of man whileyet efforts St. Augustine and Theodore of Tarsus (the ing to rubbletheproudest from597, the appealing to the aestheticperception.32In the of Canterbury Archbishop former we finally, centuries, and early thirteenth 669) arrivedin Kent,once the landing twelfth from latter an effort as far as classical art is concerned, place of the Roman armies. Both St. Augustine find, as in the French and and Theodore of Tarsus broughtwith themnot not at directassimilation, 33 but a most interonly the Christianfaith,theologicalknowledge, Italian "proto-Renaissance," appreciation, purely connoisseurlike esting mixture of and churchmusic,but also a treasuryof pedantryGreek and antiquarian enthusiasm collector's even case (in Theodore's classical learning from a Continentalpoint learning); and theSchoolof Canterbury-matched all very anachronistic in the North by such centersas Jarrow-Wear- of view. butprolifer- Osbert de Clare, visitingRome as an envoyof and York-not onlyflourished mouth Continent King Stephen (d. 1154), raves about the marble ated at a timewhenthepre-Carolingian thatCharlemagne images on the Arch of Titus because they are to suchan extent was barbarized any trace without the centuries had to call on Alcuin,a productof York, to help "aging throughout per saecula vetustate him withhis renovatioof Roman art and letters. of oldness" ("nulla temporis and wishes that a similarmonuIn England,then,we have, on the one hand, a senescentes")34 erectedto St. Edmund. Bishop be might ment strongadmixtureof the Celtic element-tending sojourning in Rome in 1151, Blois, of Henry "non-objective" and involved towardshyperbole, imagination-inthe very boughtup (coemit) a great numberof classical and unbridled movement by the heathensin subtle and and secular culture; and, statues "contrived centersof ecclesiastical devouterror"and had them than rather laborious of a on the other, the unparalleledcontinuity Palace at Winchester; his Episcopal to transferred refar island an classical traditionwhich,upon forebearof Lord Carleton and and never Latin- an anachronistic movedfromthe Mediterranean tendedto assumethecharacter Lord Elgin, he was consideredby the Romans ized in its entirety, to be a typicallyEnglish eccentric.35 themselves of an "invisiblelodge." Gregorius from Oxford (ca. Magister And a All this does not explainbut may make us unaround Rome admiringand going while 1250), antinomies to a degree,thecharacteristic derstand, fell in love with a buildings, classical measuring the especially and civilization, art of English its "magic perthat extent the to statue peculiar British attitude towards classical an- Venus and again in time it visit him to forced suasion" wastiquity. In England the classical tradition his lodgfrom distance its considerable of spite and in a measure still is-looked upon as a part ings.36 the than less no important of thenationalheritage Bible-yet as a realm accessible only to a 32 This is in contrast to Continental descriptions of privilegedelite and far removed from palpable ruins, both earlier and later (Venantius Fortunatus on realityin space and time. Remnantsof Roman the one hand, Hildebert of Lavardin, on the other), where by the invading the emphasis is first,on the original beauty of the monubuildings,recklesslymistreated became an inte- ments now destroyed ("Roma quanta fuit, ipsa ruina never but existed Anglo-Saxons, second, on the hope for a better future. Only gral part of the livingsceneryas was the case in docet"); the English could, in the eighteenthcentury,conceive the Germany; idea of building artificial ruins. Italy,in France and even in southwest 33 I do not believe that direct classical influencecan be and we can easily conceivethatthe English reacin a statue at Winchester which H. Roosenrecognized or antiquarian was either classical antiquity tionto ("Ein Werk englischer Grossplastik und die Runge "Romantic"or both. Antike," Festschrift Hans R. Hahnloser (Basel and It is no accidentthat,afterthe initial impact Stuttgart, 1961), p. 103 ff.) believes to derive from a the classical model. In my opinion the work is an offshootof millennium, art in the first of Mediterranean the north transept sculptureat Chartres. amount of classicalmodelsdid not directinfluence 34 Osbert's statement is quoted in Abbot Samson's 31 archaeology; of therise scholarly to muchbefore Miracula S. Eadmundi; see Lehmann-Brockhaus,op. cit. while, on the other hand, in one of the earliest 3: p. 422, no. 6696. monuments of Anglo-Saxon literature-that 35 John of Salisbury, Historia pontificalis; see Lehop. cit. 2: p. 667, no. 4760 (also quoted amazingpoem, The Ruin-Roman remains(pre- mann-Brockhaus, by Roosen-Runge, op. cit., and elsewhere); cf. E. Panofas a sky, Renaissance and Renascences (Stockholm, 1960), sumably those of Bath) are interpreted reducp. 72 f. of destiny, forces the destructive of symbol
31

See note 33.

36 Cf. the literature referred to by Panofsky, ibid., p. 73, note 1.

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real, subjective experiences. The Hisperica Fainina describesa ferocious of great disputation In the domain of early Latin writingEngland in which himscholars, a the author bloody fight also produced two strikingly contrastivephenomenaneither of which,so far as I know,has a selfplays a heroicrole,a day in school beginning of the awakeningof depiction true parallel on the Continent. One of these withan impressive in the life early a morning, shipwreck, etc.; the phenomena consistsof textsdistinguished by vioDescription of Ireland is devoted solely to the lent passion and a deliberate obscuritywhich might invite comparison with the "chimerical dangersand the beautyof the Irish sea with its sunrisesand sunsets. And the obdarkness"of Lycophron'sAlexandra,were it not breathtaking of these texts results entirelyfrom the scurity forthefactthattheyrepresent an entirely different of violence theeccentricity emotion; of speechand principleof obfuscation. The dark sayings of the boldness of the sound; the untamed imagery; Lycophron'sCassandra are in realityentirely rational, condensed into correct iambic trimeters, power of the rhythm-a kind of rhapsodicprose couchedin somewhat mannered but perfectly nor- in the Farnina, free metersvaguely reminiscent mal language, and made obscure and oracular of the hexameterin the Descriptionof Ireland; onlybytheexcessiveuse of erudite circumlocution the disjointedgrammar;and, above all, the fiery -as if a modernauthorwere to inform us of the bombast of a language which intermixesLatin invented words. fact that Mozart was born at Salzburg in 1756, withGreek,"Hisperic" and freely in Even a translation, which must render all when Frederick the Great started the Seven these outlandish words by normal English ones, Years' War, by tellingus thatthe Lord of Peace is extraordinary; in the originalLatin, took up the swordwhen Orpheus reappearedin a the effect it is simplystupendous:"This island," it says in castle of salt. The oppositeis true of such sevthepoeminserted intotheLife of St. Columbanus, enth-century effusions as theHisperica Famina or the Descriptionof Ireland insertedat the begin- awaits the setting of the Titan [viz., the sun god] ningofJonasof Bobbio's LifeofSt. Colombanus.37 while the world turns and light descends into the Here the subject matterconsists of intensely western shadows-the sea, with its measureless masses of waves, abysses horriblein
color, a profusion of hair curling everywhere. White, glistening 37See E. K. Rand, "The Irish Flavor of Hisperica robe (peplo kana), broad backs of blue, smitingman's Famina," Studien zur lateinischen Dichtung des Mittel- hiding places on the foamingshore, the farthest bay alters; Ehrengabe fiurKarl Strecker zum 4. September on earth. Never sufferthe shores we know so well 1931 (Dresden, 1931), p. 134 ff. The standard edition of to be entrustedwith a gentle ship that craves the the Hisperica Famnina is by F. J. H. Jenkinson, The quiveringbrine. Over such lands does tawny Titan Hisperica Famina ... (Cambridge, 1908), proving (p. x) descend at the dense light of Arcturus and moves, that "even if the text is not by an Irishman the scene is revolving, to otherparts of the world. Following the laid in a country where the language of the inhabitants northwind, he strivesfor his rising in the east, that is Irish" and adding such related texts as the Lorica, the born to new lifehe may restorethe kindlylightto the Rubisca and the hymn Adelphus Adelpha. The Deworld and scatter his fire far and wide over the scription of Ireland, as printedin Bruno Krusch's edition trembling sky. And so, reaching all the goal posts of the Life of St. Columbanus, is reprintedand translated of day and nightin his course, he illuminesthe earth in Rand (whose translation is here adopted with only with his brightness and makes the world lovely, minor modifications); the pertinent passage reads as drippingwith heat.
follows: "Expectatque Titanis occasum, dum vertiturorbis, Lux et occiduas pontumdescenditin umbras: Undarum inmanes moles quo truces latebras Colore et nimio passim crine crispanti, Peplo kana, raptim quem dant cerula terga, Aequoris spumea cedunt et litora, sinus Ultimus terrarum,nec mitem sinunt carinam Tremulo petentemsalo dare nota litora nobis. Flavus super haec Titan descendit opago Lumine Arcturi petitque partes girando: Aquilonem sequens, orientis petit ad ortum, Ut mundo redivivus lumen reddat amoenum, Sese mundo late tremulo ostendat et igne. Sicque metas omnes diei noctisque peractu Cursu et inpletas, suo lustrat candore terras, Amoenum reddens orbem calore madentem."

It is almost impossible to read this early poem without thinking of Ossian and William Turner and without rememberingthe famous definitionof the "sublime" penned by John Dennis in 1693: "The sense of all this (viz., a dangerous and beautifuljourney through the Alps) produc'd different motions in me, viz., a delightfulHorrour, a terrible Joy, and at the same time that I was infinitely pleas'd, I trembled."38 We are confronted with an anticipation of genuine English "'Romanticism" by a thousand years.
38

don,1963), p. 133 f. (quotedin Monk,op. cit.,207).

John Dennis, Miscellanies in Verse and Prose (Lon-

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And yet,the very period whichproducedthis gloriouspieceofimagistic poetry yieldedto an impulse as unromantic as possible: an almostobsessive interest in classical prosody. "The AngloSaxons," writesRaby, "seem to have had a preoccupation withmeterin its mechanical aspects"; even withinthe framework of theirown poems they "liked to describe the meter they were using."39 Preciselysuch authorsas St. Columba or Aldhelm of Malmesbury, who often indulged in an exuberantobscurity reminiscent of the His~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ pericaFamnina and the Description of Ireland,do ......... not forgetto inform their readers of the meter 40 employed-whether versus bipedales or care.1 fully constructed Tl St.ts hexameters.41 And whilea ConChrh W..impf im.. ........ tinentalwriterof the seventhcenturysuch as Virgil of Toulouse (fl. ca. 630?) betraysa truly abysmal ignorance of classical versification,42 Bede's only slightly later De arte metricais an expertand utterly reasonable introduction to classical prosody, correctly defining thevariousclassical metersyet acceptingrhythm (modulatiosine ratione) as even moreimportant thanmeterpure maybe sucpil and simple (modulatio cum ratione), which en- Thi saement isvr tru bul;tor joyed a well-deserved reputation for centuries.43 in th irs plce tExt of thi kid whte in prSe or vese evnc a supisn abltypo
;.. _ , . : F I.
.., ...... .. .... .

VII.

This English duality is especiallyevident in thosemediaevaltextswhichrecord, or purport to record,impressions of worksof art in purelydescriptive fashion. It has been said that English sources of this kind, particularly of the twelfth are "characterized century, bya farmorevividdescription"than are their Continental parallels.44

and anaye at tie niiptn h FIG. 16. Wimpfen Tal, St. Peter'sChurch. effors ofth oer im risoin
disicin

39 F. J. E. Raby, A History of Secular Latin Poetry in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1934) 1: p. 175 f. 40 St. Columba, quoted in Raby, ibid., p. 164. A similar passage from Alcuin is quoted in Raby, p. 183. St. Columba even knows that the versus bipedalis (Adonid) was inventedby Sappho. 41Aldhelm, De Virginitate,45 ff.,quoted in Raby, p. 175, note. 42 Raby, 1: p. 155: "It is hard to believe that he had any serious knowledge of quantitative verse." Virgil's discussion of prosody is found in his Epitome 4 (E. Huemer, Virgilii Grammatici Maronis opera (Leipzig, 1886), p. 12 ff.); his level of eruditionis characterizedby the fact that he defines geometry as "ars disciplinata, quae omnium herbarum graminumque experimentum enunciat." 43 A modern edition of Bede's work is found in E. Keil, Grammaticilatini (Leipzig, 1880) 7: p. 217 ff. It should be noted that Bede takes most of his examples from Christian authors-except for such very famous 45 Burchardus de Hallis, Chronicon ecclesiae collegiatae poets as Virgil, Lucan, and, oddly enough, Lucretius. S. Petri Winpiensis. The passage, probably written 44 O. Lehmann-Brockhaus, as quoted in N. Pevsner, about 1280 (the author died in 1300), has oftenbeen reThe Englishness of English Art (London, 1956), p. 27. printed and discussed, most recentlyby P. Frankl, The

This statement is verytruebutnmay be susceptible Tlfi. 1)olbystaig thtth ate a of specification. In the first place textsof thiskind wtheterin prose or verse, evince a stirprising ability-proofa civilizamoted, perhaps, bytheveryinsularity tion lookingto both Celtic Ireland and the Roman or Romanized Continent-to nmake stylistic distinctions and analysesat tinmes the anticipatinlg efforts ofthemodern art historian. A Continental chronicler of the thirteenth centhe difference between the turycould characterize Early-Rouanesquewest partand the Gothicnave of a Germanchurch(St. Peter's at Wimpfen im Tal, fig. 16) only by statingthat the latterwas built"in theFrenchmanner"( opereFrancigeno ), thatits windowsand piers "followed the English fashion"(ad instar Anglicioperis) and thatit was of "ashlars" (sectis lapidibus) rather constructed than rough stones.45 Gervaseof Canterbury,

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writingnearly a hundredyears earlier and deCathedralrebuilt thechoirof Canterbury scribing thefamousconflagration by Williamof Sens after a thorough of 1174,goes out ofhis way to provide betweenthe old strucanalysisof "the difference diftureand the new" (quae sit operisutriusque of the ferentia) which amountsto a definition Gothicstyleas opposed to the Romanesque. He as that between comes up with such distinctions groin vaults and vaults providedwith ribs and keystones(fornicesplanae, fornicesarcuatae et clavatae), or that betweenstone carvings"looking as if theyhad been done with an axe rather than a chisel" (utpote sculptasecure et non scisello) and "subtle and competent sculpture" (sculpturasubtilisand sculpturaidonea). And Paul anticipates at one pointhe even surprisingly the Romanesqueand between Frankl'sdistinction Gothicstylesas "additive"and "divisive"in statwere the transepts ing that in the old structure separatedfromthe choir by high walls, whereas not separatedfromthe in the new "the transepts, apfeature(interstitio), choirby any intervening in themiddleof pearedto convenein one keystone the fourprincipal the big vault whichsurmounts If Osbertde Clare, Henryof Blois, and Magiscouldfallin love withclassicalstatuterGregorius at thebeginning writing ary,GiraldusCambrensis, could do justice to the of the thirteenth century, believed to style of an ancient Irish manuscript have been producedfor St. Bridgetin miraculous fashion;his words sound like a modernart historian's description of, say, the Book of Kells (fig. 18):

piers(fig.17)

46

FIG.

east. looking choir, 17. Canterbury Cathedral,

to the Four Gospelsaccording This book contains are about of St. Jerome; and there theConcordance by varidistinguished as many different illustrations, as there are pages. Hereyoumaysee the ous colors, the there expressed; divinely faceof theAll-Highest now havingsix of the Evangelists, figures mystical the nowtwo; heretheeagle,there nowfour, wings, In the second place, the texts in question are thatofa lion; and indeed distinguished by a stupendous richness in calf;herethefaceofa man,there in number.Whenyou almostinfinite otherfigures in a superficial and ordinary technical detail and a certain preoccupation with thesepictures consider thancoherent measurements comparable to the early Angloas blotsrather willappear manner they
Saxon interest in prosody: the height of the

shapes (litura potiusquam ligatura), and you will fail where there is nothingbut to perceive any subtlety the visual power subtlety. But when you concentrate and examination, of your eyes upon a more thorough penetratethe secrets of art, with a sustained effort so delicateand you will be able to perceiveintricacies and inand involved,so knotted subtle,so close-knit by colors which have terlaced,and so muchillumined up to our day, thatyou will theirfreshness preserved of of all this to the industry the composition attribute angels ratherthan humans (tam delicatas et subtiles, tam arctas et artitas,tam nodosas et vinculatimcoladhuc coloribusillustratas ligatas, tamquerecentibus potius ut vero haec omnnia notarepoterisintricaturas, esse humanadiligentiaiam assev'eraris angelica qutam .47 coamposita)

Gothic; Literary Sources and Interpretations through Wilton, said to surpass the buildEight Centuries (Princeton, 1960), p. 55 f. The phrase church tower at fenestrae et coli mnae ad instar operis anglici probably ings of Babylon and Rome, is later on determined and when a refersto the fact that each of the circular piers has eight as amounting to exactly 120 cubits,48 colonnettes; the tracery of disengaged and differentiated 47Giraldus Cambrensis, Topographia Hiberniae, dist. modern. the windows is unfortunately in Lehmann-Brockhaus, 2, cap. 38 f. (Kildare); reprinted 46 Chronica Gervasii Monachi Cantuariensis (ad annum op. cit. 3: p. 217, no. 5940. 1174); frequentlyreprintedand translated; the passage 48Goscelinus, Legend of St. Edith in Verse; reprinted here cited is found in Lehmann-Brockhaus, op. cit. 1: in Lehmann-Brockhaus,op. cit. 2: p. 625 ff.,no. 4616. p. 230, no. 822.

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thirteenth-century converse brotherof Melrose and smoothed walls of the choir and transept of Abbeydescribes thecuriousbehaviorof the moon Lincoln Cathedral(rebuiltby St. Hugh between -which he had observed to splitin half,to trans- 1192 and 1220) "despise" the idea of beingcomform itself into a crenelatedcastle and subse- posed of individual stonesand "feignto consistof quently intoan "elegantship,"then -tochangeback a continuous matter, to be a workof naturerather to a castle, and finally to returnto normal-he thanart,to be a unityrather thana union"; and does not failto mention thatthe distancebetween the disengagedcolonnettes surrounding the octhe two halves amounted to about one "stadium" tagonalpiers"seemto perform a solemndance."50 and thatthecastledisplayed a royalbannerwhose Light is, therefore, hardlyever interpreted-as, little streamers (lingulae sive caudulae) were for example,by Suger of St.-Denis-as a metain the breeze.49 There is, however, fluttering on physicalprinciple;it tends to be acceptedas a the otherhand a markedtendency to subjectivize purelynaturalphenomenon (we may remember the phenomenaon a purelypsychological plane, thatthreeof the fourgreatmediaevalrepresentamoreoften thannot by way of what is knownas tivesof optics,Roger Bacon, JohnPeckham,and "empathy." Afterits manytransformations, the RobertGrosseteste, were Englishmen)conducive, moonstrikes thegood Fraterof Melroseas having however,to a distinctly subjective, aestheticex"suffered an injuryso as to remaindisturbed, de- perience. In thedescription of thechurch at Wiljected and distressed, pale and discolored"(quasi ton, the rays of the sun penetratethe church iniuria passa, turbata,contristata et conturbata, "through sheerglass and pure sapphire" (a prepallida mansit et decolorata). In the versified cious darkblue glass which, at the timehad to be Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln the carefully joined imported from theEast), and "goldenlightstrikes thefacesof thepeoplewhentheyenterso thatall thingsseem to rejoice in the rays of the reflected sun." 51 The walls of the choir of Lincoln Caseem to consistof a nonthedral, just mentioned, porous matter glisteninglike the star-studded firmament (Non tot laxa poris sed crebrosidere fulgens) while the surfacesof its "dancing"colonnettes,"more highly polished than a newly grownfinger nail, oppose the brightstars to the reflected raysofvision" (Exteriorfacies,nascente politiorungue,/Clara repercussis opponitvisibus This bringsus to the thirdand mostimportant in thisand point: thevisual experiences described to an astonishing othertexts tend to anticipate, on the Contidegree-and in a mannerunknown
50 Versifiedlife of St. Hugh of Lincoln (composed between 1220 and 1235); reprintedin Lehmann-Brockhaus 2: p. 27 ff.,no. 2372: "Viscosusque liquor lapides conglutinatalbos, Quos manus artificisomnes excidit ad unguem. Et paries ex congerie constructuseorum, Hoc quasi dedignans,mentitur continuare Contiguas partes; non esse videtur ab arte, Quin a natura; non res unita, sed una. ... Inde columnellae,quae sic cinxere columnas, Ut videanturibi quamdam celebrare choream." 51 Source referred to in note 48. The lines in question read as follows:
FIG.
2 castrca) '5 5

Trinity The Book 18. Dublin, CollegeLibrary, ofKells,fol.34.

52

de Mailros (ad annum 1216); reprintedin 49Chrontica Lehmann-Brockhaus,op. cit. 3: 127, no. 5573.

\Tultusintrantumferit aurea lux populorum Clarifice Atque repercusso congaudent omnia Phebo A radiis." Source referredto in note 50.

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nent-the specifically "Romantic" preoccupation withinfinity and night. That the polished surfaceof the Lincoln colonnettes "oppose the bright stars to the reflected raysof vision" seemsto suggesta nocturnal visit. And whatis hereonlyimplied, is explicitly stated in Wulfstan's remarkabledescriptionof Winchester Cathedral rebuilt by Bishop Elphegus (reigned 984-1005). Like Gervase of Canterbury, Wulfstan (whose poem is addressed to Bishop Elphegus himself) is very accurate and circumstantial, down to a minutedescription of the gigantic organwhichhad to be playedby two organistswhile seventystrong men, "dripping withsweat,"workedits twenty-six bellows. But he praisestheeast tower-payinga specialtribute to the gilded weathercock which"noblygoverns thetransient empire and, turning faces ceaselessly, the rain-carrying winds fromall directions and bravelysuffers the impactof the horrid-sounding stormsand snow"-not only because whirlwind, of its heightbut also because the windows that pierce its fivestoreysopen up a panoramicview "over the four quartersof the earth" (Quinque tenet patulissegmenta oculatafenestris/ Per quadrasque plagcas panditubiquevias). And themost amazing featureof his poem is an evocationof the impression producedby the churchat night whenthemoonrisesand thestarsare out: On top [of the roof] thereis a crestarrangement withgilded globes, and a golden radiance embellishes the wholework. Whenever the moonshinesat its glorious rise,another radiance soarsfrom thesacred structure to the celestial bodies; whena wanderer, passingby,observes[the church]by night, he believesthattheearth, too,has its stars.53 Even Gervaseof Canterbury, though expressing himself in prose ratherthan in well-constructed elegiac couplets,is not impervious to "romantic" sensations. Having described the originand hidden progressof the fireof 1174-and so minute is his description thatwe obtaina clear picture of the old choir's roofconstruction-aswell as the desperateefforts of monksand laymento get it undercontrol, he goes on to say thatthe wooden
53Wolstani Vita S. Aethelwoldi Episcopi Wintoniensis; reprinted in Lehmann-Brockhaus,op. cit. 2: p. 650 f., no. 4691. The passage in question reads as follows: "Stat super auratis virgae fabricatiobullis; Aureus et totum splendor adornat opus. Luna coronato quoties radiaverit ortu, Alterum ab aede sacra surgitad astra iubar: Si nocte inspiciat hunc praetereundoviator, Et terram stellas credit habere suas."

FIG. 19.

view. Rolls-Royce car,front

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288

ERWIN PANOFSKY

[PROC. AMER. PHIL.

SOC.

choir stalls were ignitedby burning fragments of Saxon preoccupations and aptitudes: it conceals the rafters and thatin theend thewhole"glorious an admirable behinda majespiece of engineering structure" went up in flameswhich,"multiplied tic Palladian temple front; but this Palladian by so big a mass of wood," reachedup to fifteen temple frontis surmounted by the wind-blown cubits. But whilehe depictsthe witnesses to this "Silver Lady" in whom art nouveauf appears intheirhair and hitting spectacleas tearing the wall fused with the spirit of unmitigated"Romanwith their heads, he calls the spectacle itself ticism." The radiatorand the radiatorcap have mirabile, immo miserabile-"wonderfulthough not been changedsince the firstRolls-Roycecar 54 pitiful." Here again, we have, more than five was delivered of 1905; the"Silver at thebeginning centuries beforeJohnDennis, a clear anticipation Lady," modeled by Charles Sykes, R. A., was of thatbasic "romantic" experience:"A delightful added as earlyas 1911 (fig.20).55 Since thenthe unaltered: Horrour, a terrible "face" of theRolls-Roycehas remained Joy." to reflect theessenceof theBritish it has continued * * * characterfor more than half a century. May it These, then,are what I have facetiously called neverbe changed! 55 H. Nockholds, The Magic of a Namiie (revised edithe ideological antecedentsof the Rolls-Royce acquaintance radiator(fig. 19). The composition of thisradia- tion, London, 1950), pp. 42, 251. I owe mythis book to Mr. Winthrop Brubaker, Vice-Presitorsumsup, as it were,twelvecenturies of Anglo- with dent of Rolls-Royce, Inc., to whom I am also indebted
54

op. cit. 1: p. 217 f., no. 800. Lehmann-Brockhaus,

for the photographs reproduced in figs. 19 and 20.

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