Identifier: devoncornwallnot112amer_0 (find matches)
Title: Devon & Cornwall notes & queries
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Amery, John S
Subjects:
Publisher: Exeter, England : J.G. Commin
Contributing Library: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
tistic that has ever been devised. In its earlier form, asmight be expected, it carries some reminiscence of Romanesqueor late Norman decoration, but this is soon discarded, and astyle evolved which is intensely English. In the foregoingpages it has been shown that, many of the figure subjects ofthe misericords resemble contemporary work in France, butwith regard to the ornamental foliage it is not so. Englishstiff-leaf foliage is a distinct type, and has very little incommon with French art. The forms are based on naturalprinciples; the stems are always the basis of the design; inearly work rather formal, yet always graceful and satisfying ;later they curve and swirl about in the most wonderful lines,and the leaves follow them, producing effects of marvellousbeauty. The ornament however is purely conventional, andit is not much good to try to identify it with any plant inparticular. With the idea of placing it on a religiousoundation some ingenious writers in the last century held 38
Text Appearing After Image:
THE MISERICORDS OF EXETER CATHEDRAL. that the typical leaf was modelled on the water avens,Herba Benedicta; but it is no more like that than any othertrefoil leaf. Really the natural object it most resemblesis the unopened frond of the bracken, which having justforced its way through the soil is tightly curled up at the topof its stiff stem. It was the observation of Viollet le Due, which has beenendorsed by many other writers, that Gothic ornament at itsrise suggested the unopened buds and leaves of early spring ;as time went on the buds and leaves gradually opened, andtowards the end of the thirteenth century we find wholebranches of fully expanded leaves. This process appears soclearly in the Exeter misericords that by its means thechronology can be roughly fixed, and by the aid of theillustrations I ought to be able to make the matter plain. Stiff Leaf (No. 37). This is typical early stiff-leaf, retaining a suggestion ofRomanesque work, and is probably the earliest of thecarvings.

Note About Images