Not sure why, but I thought today about a visit I made to the village of Charney Bassett. It was February 2023, and I wanted to visit the grave of relatives. My aunt and uncle, long term residents of the village, took care of me during a summer in the 1950s. I haven't forgotten those days.
I took a look around the church. A building I visited often. Here's a highlight I always return to. Here's a review of this fascinating carving.
The survival of this tympanum inside St. Peter's, is a mystery. At first glance it appears to be just another fragment of Norman stonework. Yet the more we look at its history, the more puzzling it seems. Even specialists have disagreed about both its date and its meaning.
Today the tympanum is mounted above a blocked doorway in the north wall of the chancel. Evidence suggests that it originally belonged to an earlier doorway and was preserved when the church was remodelled. When the north aisle was added in the fifteenth century, the doorway was blocked, leaving the carving protected within the fabric of the church. This fortunate act of conservation has allowed a remarkable survival of medieval sculpture that might otherwise have been lost to weather and erosion.
The carving itself presents a carefully balanced composition. Two winged beasts confront one another across a central human figure. Around the scene runs a border of stylised foliage and bead ornament, all contained within the familiar semicircular form of a Romanesque tympanum. The design possesses a formal symmetry that immediately suggests symbolism rather than narrative, inviting interpretation rather than providing an obvious story.( 32 The Romanesque Sculptures of Britain and Ireland)
The dating of the sculpture remains a matter of scholarly debate. The official listing of the church and the traditional architectural description place the work in the early twelfth century, making it a product of the Norman period. 13 Yet other authorities have proposed an earlier origin. Nikolaus Pevsner considered the possibility that the carving might belong to the eleventh century, placing it closer to the late Anglo-Saxon world than to the fully developed Romanesque style of Norman England. 2 ( The Romanesque Sculptures of Britain and Ireland)
Interpretation of the imagery has proved equally elusive. Early writers identified the scene as Alexander the Great ascending to heaven carried by griffins, a motif known from medieval European art and thought ultimately to derive from Eastern and Byzantine traditions. According to this theory, the image may reflect patterns transmitted through imported textiles and other luxury objects. 2 (The Romanesque Sculptures of Britain and Ireland)
Later scholars questioned this explanation. Pevsner argued that the arrangement of the figures does not correspond convincingly to the traditional iconography of the Flight of Alexander. The central figure's posture and relationship to the surrounding beasts fail to match the familiar examples found elsewhere. 2 As a result, the subject remains uncertain. Some descriptions refer to dragons, others to griffins, while the identity of the central figure remains open to interpretation. (The Romanesque Sculptures of Britain and Ireland)
Things are more intriguing still when stylistic comparisons are introduced. The website on Romanesque Sculpture notes possible similarities with carvings associated with Reading Abbey, particularly in the treatment of the beasts and ornamental foliage. While the evidence is not decisive, these parallels hint at artistic connections linking a small rural church in the Vale with some of the major monastic centres of southern England. 2 ( The Romanesque Sculptures of Britain and Ireland)
So the debate goes on. The carving stands at a crossroads between the Anglo-Saxon and Norman worlds, between local craftsmanship and wider European artistic traditions. Some images were designed to provoke reflection. This is another one.