Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/81

Rh should prove as successful as that at Oxford, so memorable amongst the Annual Assemblies of previous years, through the gratifying welcome with which they had been received in that ancient seat of learning, and the encouraging recognition of the value of Archæological researches.

In connexion with the display of Antiquities in the Dublin Exhibition, Mr. stated, that having on a former occasion directed the attention of the members of the Institute to the extraordinary rudeness of the drawings of the human figure contained even in the finest of the Illuminated MSS. executed in Ireland (See Journal, vol. vii., p. 17), he had been anxious to ascertain whether the same style of Art prevailed in the sculptures of Ireland, executed either in metal or stone, of both of which numerous examples occurred in the Dublin Exhibition. This he had found to be completely the case, in proof of which he exhibited a number of casts in gutta percha, which he had been enabled to make of different objects of art in the Exhibition, by the kindness of their respective owners. Amongst these were several figures of the Saviour suspended on the Cross, of which the proportions of the body and limbs were most unnatural. In some the arms seemed to be simply formed of bent or flattened wire. The majority, however, of these crucifix figures agree in several curious particulars. The head is almost always crowned, the body naked to the waist, with a short tunic reaching nearly to the knees, and the feet pierced separately. In all these respects these figures bear a great resemblance to the enamelled crucifix figures of the Saviour executed at Limoges in the XIIth century, of which a very remarkable example was exhibited by Mr. Forrest at the previous November meeting of the Institute (Journal, vol. x. p. 369). The repeated occurrence of the crowned head is curious, as it is of very great rarity in the illuminations of contemporary MSS., and it was probably founded upon some legendary or symbolical theory, which it would be interesting to trace. Didron is silent on the subject. These figures are generally of bronze and gilt, and the features are entirely destitute of expression.

Mr. Westwood also exhibited casts of two small bronze sculptured groups of the Crucifixion, which quite agree in general treatment and details, as well as in their excessive rudeness of execution, with the curious representation of the same subject in the Irish Psalter at St. John's College, Cambridge (copied in Palæogr. Sacr. Pict.). The Saviour in both is represented of large size in comparison with the other figures; in both the head is uncrowned, with long hair, and in one the face has long moustaches curled at the lips, and a long forked beard; in the other the body is ornamented with interlaced riband-work. The feet are separately affixed, and the middle of the body clad with a tunic. On either side of the Saviour are the two soldiers with spear and sponge, and over his outstretched arms are two winged angels. We have here another striking peculiarity, as the ordinary mode of representation of the Crucifixion in the Latin Church, from the earliest times, has been to figure the Blessed Virgin on one side, and St. John on the other, whilst the two soldiers are more usually found in the representations of the Eastern Church, and we find them likewise on all our own earliest stone monuments, as on the curious carved cross found at Woden's Church, Alnmouth, a cast of which was exhibited in the Dublin Exhibition; the original fragment is at Alnwick Castle, in the Museum formed by the Duke of Northumberland. They appear likewise on the Cross at Aycliffe, co. Durham, represented in