Page:VCH Derbyshire 1.djvu/375

 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART Symbolical Figure Subjects? The following figure-subjects occur upon the pre-Norman sculptured stones of Derbyshire : Subjects. Localities. Subjects. Localities. Annunciation (?). . . Bakewell, Hope. Angels Bakewell, Eyam. Adoration of Magi. . Wirksworth. Agnus Dei on Cross. Wirksworth. Flight into Egypt. . Bakewell. Saint with horn. . Bakewell, Eyam. Christ washing Disciples' Saint with cross. . Bakewell. Feet Wirksworth. Saint with book. . Bradbourne. Entry into Jerusalem. Bakewell. Man with staff. . Norbury. Crucifixion .... Bakewell, Bradbourne. St. Paul and St. Anthony Hope. Ascension .... Wirksworth Figure bearing cross. Hope. Having now classified the decorative features of the monuments, we are in a position to take a survey of them as a whole, and make some suggestions with regard to the relative age of the different specimens. The coped stone at Wirksworth stands alone, and I know of no other pre-Norman sculptured stone in Great Britain with which it can be compared. In Saxon or Celtic work each of the figure subjects would be placed in a separate panel, but here all the figures are grouped together exactly in the same way as on the early Christian sarcophagi of the third and fourth centuries at Rome. The general style of the Wirksworth stone is certainly more Roman than Saxon, and although probably not going back as far as Roman times, it may fairly lay claim to be the earliest Christian monument in Derbyshire. The peculiar drilled eyes and the treatment of two of the subjects, the Agnus Dei on the Cross and the Ascension, may perhaps help to fix the date. The drilled eyes occur elsewhere in Saxon sculpture at Chichester Cathedral and Dewsbury, Yorkshire. The Agnus Dei on the Cross preceded the representations of the crucified Saviour on the Cross. The symbols of the Four Evangelists on the Wirksworth stone with human bodies and heads of the symbolic beasts resemble those on pre-Norman sculptural monuments at Ilkley, 8 Yorkshire ; Halton, 8 Lancashire ; and Kirriemuir* and Inchbrayock, 6 Forfarshire. The practice of surrounding the figure of Christ with an aureole supported by two or four angels (as at Wirks- worth) was introduced into Christian art about the sixth century. Taking all these things into consideration, I think we cannot be far wrong in assigning a date to the Wirksworth stone somewhere towards the end of the seventh century. Next in order of age come the crosses at Bakewell, Bradbourne, and Eyam, which with the cross-shaft at Sheffield obviously form a group of common origin and the same period. There is nothing whatever Scandinavian in the decorative features of this group, and the foliage and interlaced work may be traced to a Byzantine source. Consequently the group in question belongs to the pre- Viking age, and probably, for reasons we have already given, to the time of Offa (i.e., the latter half of the eighth century). In analysing the interlaced work on the monuments of a particular geographical area, it will be found that the commoner patterns are of but 1 For explanations, see J. R. Allen, Christian Symbolism. 9 Journ. Brit. Arch. Assac. xxxviii. 156. 3 Ibid. xlii. 328. 287
 * Allen and Anderson, Early Christian Monuments of Scotland, 227. * Ibid. 254.