1, B. Cowardice,
a man frightened at an animal darting out
of a thicket,
while a bird sings on. The coward has
not the heart of a thrush.
[Pg 118]
2, A. Patience, holding
a shield with a bull on it (never giving
back).
[4-23]
2, B. Anger,
a woman stabbing a man with a sword. Anger
is essentially a
feminine vice—a man, worth calling so,
may be driven to
fury or insanity by indignation,
(compare the
Black Prince at Limoges,) but not by
anger. Fiendish
enough, often so—"Incensed with
indignation,
Satan stood, unterrified—" but in that last
word is the
difference, there is as much fear in Anger,
as there is in Hatred.
3, A. Gentillesse, bearing shield with a lamb.
3, B.
Churlishness, again a woman, kicking over her cup-bearer.
The final
forms of ultimate French churlishness
being in
the feminine gestures of the Cancan.
See the
favourite prints in shops of Paris.
4, A.
Love; the Divine, not human love: "I in them, and
Thou in
me." Her shield bears a tree with many
branches
grafted into its cut-off stem: "In those days
shall Messiah
be cut off, but not for Himself."
4, B.
Discord, a wife and husband quarrelling. She has
dropped her
distaff (Amiens wool manufacture, see farther
on—9, A.)
5, A.
Obedience, bears shield with camel. Actually the most
disobedient
and ill-tempered of all serviceable beasts,—yet
passing his
life in the most painful service. I do
not know
how far his character was understood by the
northern
sculptor; but I believe he is taken as a type
of burden-bearing,
without joy or sympathy, such as
[Pg 119]
the horse has,
and without power of offence, such as the
ox has.
His bite is bad enough, (see Mr. Palgrave's
account of him,)
but presumably little known of at
Amiens,
even by Crusaders, who would always ride
their own war-horses, or nothing.
5, B.
Rebellion,
a man snapping his fingers at his Bishop.
(As Henry
the Eighth at the Pope,—and the modern
French and
English cockney at all priests whatever.)
6, A.
Perseverance, the grandest spiritual form of the virtue
commonly
called 'Fortitude.' Usually, overcoming
or tearing
a lion; here, caressing one, and holding
her crown.
"Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man
take thy crown."
6, B.
Atheism, leaving his shoes at the church door. The infidel
fool is
always represented in twelfth and thirteenth
century
MS. as barefoot—the Christian having "his
feet shod
with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace."
Compare
"How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O
Prince's Daughter!"
7, A.
Faith, holding cup with cross above it, her accepted
symbol throughout
ancient Europe. It is also an enduring
one, for, all
differences of Church put aside, the
words, "Except
ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
Drink His blood,
ye have no life in you," remain in
their mystery,
to be understood only by those who have
learned the
sacredness of food, in all times and places,
and the laws
of life and spirit, dependent on its acceptance,
refusal, and distribution.
7, B .
Idolatry, kneeling to a monster. The contrary of
Faith—not
want of Faith. Idolatry is faith in the
wrong thing,
and quite distinct from Faith in No thing
(6, B),
the "Dixit Insipiens." Very wise men may be
idolaters,
but they cannot be atheists.
8, A.
Hope, with Gonfalon Standard and distant crown; as
opposed to the
constant crown of Fortitude (6, A).
The Gonfalon
(Gund, war, fahr, standard, according
to Poitevin's
dictionary), is the pointed ensign of forward
[Pg 120]
battle;
essentially sacred; hence the constant
name
"Gonfaloniere" of the battle standard-bearers of
the Italian republics.
Hope has it,
because she fights forward always to her
aim, or at least
has the joy of seeing it draw nearer.
Faith and Fortitude
wait, as St. John in prison, but unoffended.
Hope is, however,
put under St. James,because
of the 7th
and 8th verses of his last chapter, ending
"Stablish your
hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth
nigh." It is he
who examines Dante on the
nature of Hope.
'Par.,' c. xxv., and compare Cary's notes.
8, B.
Despair, stabbing himself. Suicide not thought heroic
or sentimental
in the 13th century; and no Gothic
Morgue built beside Somme.
9, A.
Charity, bearing shield with woolly ram, and giving a
mantle to a
naked beggar. The old wool manufacture
of Amiens
having this notion of its purpose—namely,
to clothe
the poor first, the rich afterwards. No
nonsense
talked in those days about the evil consequences
of indiscriminate charity.
9, B.
Avarice, with coffer and money. The modern, alike
English and
Amienois, notion of the Divine consummation
of the wool manufacture.
10, A. Chastity, shield with the Phœnix. [4-24]
10, B. Lust, a too violent kiss.
11, A.
Wisdom: shield with, I think, an eatable root; meaning
temperance,
as the beginning of wisdom.
11, B.
Folly
,
the ordinary type used in all early Psalters, of
a glutton,
armed with a club. Both this vice and
virtue are
the earthly wisdom and folly, completing
the spiritual
wisdom and folly opposite under St.
Matthew.
Temperance, the complement of Obedience,
and Covetousness,
with violence, that of Atheism.
12, A. Humility, shield with dove.
12, B. Pride, falling from his horse.
42. All these quatrefoils are rather symbolic than representative; and, since their purpose was answered enough if their sign was understood, they have been entrusted to a more inferior workman than the one who carved the now sequent series under the Prophets. Most of these subjects represent an historical fact, or a scene spoken of by the prophet as a real vision; and they have in general been executed by the ablest hands at the architect's command.
With the interpretation of these, I have given again the name of the prophet whose life or prophecy they illustrate.
13, A. "I saw the Lord sitting
upon a throne" (vi. I).
The vision of the
throne "high and lifted up"
between seraphim.
13, B. "Lo, this hath touched
thy lips" (vi. 7).
The Angel stands
before the prophet, and holds,
or rather held,
the coal with tongs, which have been
finely undercut,
but are now broken away, only a
fragment
remaining in his hand.
14, A. The burial of the girdle (xiii. 4, 5).
The prophet is digging
by the shore of Euphrates,
represented by vertically
winding furrows down the
middle of the tablet.
Note, the translation should be
"hole in the ground,"
not "rock."
14, B. The breaking of the yoke (xxviii. 10).
From the prophet
Jeremiah's neck; it is here
represented as a
doubled and redoubled chain.
15, A. Wheel within wheel (i. 16).
The prophet sitting;
before him two wheels of
equal size, one
involved in the ring of the other.
15, B. "Son of man, set thy
face toward Jerusalem" (xxi. 2).
The prophet
before the gate of Jerusalem.
16, A. "He hath shut the lions'
mouths" (vi. 22).
Daniel holding a book,
the lions treated as heraldic
supporters. The subject
is given with more
animation farther on in
the series (24, B).
16, B. "In the same hour came forth fingers of a Man's hand" (v. 5).
43. The next subject begins the series of the minor prophets.
17, A. "So I bought her to me
for fifteen pieces of silver and
an homer of barley" (iii. 2).
The prophet pouring
the grain and the silver into
[Pg 123]
the lap of the woman,
"beloved of her friend." The
carved coins are each
wrought with the cross, and, I
believe, legend of the
French contemporary coin.
17, B. "So will I also be for thee" (iii. 3).
He puts a ring
on her finger.
18, A. The sun and moon
lightless (ii. 10).
The sun and
moon as two small flat pellets, up in
the external moulding.
18, B. The barked fig-tree and waste vine (i. 7).
Note the continual
insistence on the blight of vegetation
as a Divine
punishment, 19 D.
To the front.
19, A. "The Lord will cry from Zion" (i. 2).
Christ appears
with crossletted nimbus.
19, B. "The habitations of the
shepherds shall mourn" (i. 2).
Amos with the
shepherd's hooked or knotted staff,
and wicker-worked
bottle, before his tent. (Architecture
in right-hand
foil restored.)
Inside Porch.
19, C.
The Lord with the mason's line (vii. 8).
Christ, again here,
and henceforward always, with
crosslet nimbus,
has a large trowel in His hand, which
He lays on the top
of a half-built wall. There seems
a line twisted
round the handle.
19, D.
The place where it rained not (iv. 7).
Amos is gathering
the leaves of the fruitless vine,
to feed the sheep,
who find no grass. One of the
finest of the reliefs.
Inside Porch.
20, A.
"I hid them in a cave" (1 Kings xviii. 13).
Three prophets
at the mouth of a well, to whom
Obadiah brings
loaves.
20, B. "He fell on his face" (xviii. 7).
He kneels before Elijah,
who wears his rough mantle.
To the front.
20, C. The captain of fifty.
Elijah (?) speaking
to an armed man under a tree.
20, D. The Messenger.
A messenger on his knees
before a king. I cannot
interpret these two scenes
(20, C and 20,
D).
The uppermost may mean
the dialogue of Elijah
with the captains
(2 Kings i. 2), and the lower one,
the return of the
messengers (2 Kings i. 5).
21, A. Escaped from the sea.
21, B. Under the gourd. A small
grasshopper-like beast
gnawing the gourd stem.
I should like to know
what insects do
attack the Amiens gourds. This may
be an entomological
study, for aught we know.
To the front.
22, A. The Tower of the Flock (iv. 8).
The tower is wrapped
in clouds, God appearing above it.
22, B. Each shall rest and "none
shall make them afraid" (iv. 4).
A man and his wife
"under his vine and fig-tree."
Inside Porch.
22, C. "Swords into ploughshares" (iv. 3).
Nevertheless, two
hundred years after these medallions
were cut, the
sword manufacture had become a
staple in Amiens!
Not to her advantage.
22, D. "Spears into pruning-hooks" (iv. 3). [Pg 125]
Inside Porch.
23, A. "None shall look back" (ii. 8).
23, B. The Burden of Nineveh (i. I). [4-26]
To the front.
23, C. "Thy Princes and thy great ones" (iii. 17).
23, A, B,
and C, are all incapable of sure interpretation. The
prophet in A
is pointing down to a little hill, said by
the Père Rozé
to be covered with grasshoppers. I can only copy
what he says of them.
23, D. "Untimely figs" (iii. 12).
Three people beneath
a fig-tree catch its falling
fruit in their mouths.
24, A. "I will watch to see what
he will say unto me" (ii. 1).
The prophet is
writing on his tablet to Christ's dictation.
24, B. The ministry to Daniel.
The traditional
visit to Daniel. An angel carries
Habakkuk by the
hair of his head; the prophet
has a loaf of
bread in each hand. They break
through the
roof of the cave. Daniel is stroking one
young lion
on the back; the head of another is thrust
carelessly
under his arm. Another is gnawing
bones in the
bottom of the cave.
To the front.
25, A. The Lord strikes Ethiopia (ii. 12).
Christ striking
a city with a sword. Note that all
violent actions
are in these bas-reliefs feebly or ludicrously
expressed; quiet
ones always right.
25, B. The beasts in Nineveh (ii. 15).
Very fine. All
kinds of crawling things among
the tottering
walls, and peeping out of their rents
and crannies.
A monkey sitting squat, developing
into a demon,
reverses the Darwinian theory.
Inside porch.
25, C. The Lord visits Jerusalem (i. 12).
Christ passing
through the streets of Jerusalem,
with a lantern
in each hand.
25, D. The Hedgehog and Bittern
[4-27] (ii. 14).
With a singing bird
in a cage in the window.
Inside Porch.
26, A. The houses of the princes,
ornées de lambris (i. 4).
A perfectly built
house of square stones gloomily
strong, the grating
(of a prison?) in front of foundation.
26, B. The Heaven is stayed from dew (i. 10).
The heavens as a
projecting mass, with stars, sun,
and moon on surface.
Underneath, two withered trees.
To the front.
26, C. The Lord's temple desolate (i. 4).
The falling of the
temple, "not one stone left on
another," grandly
loose. Square stones again. Examine
the text (i. 6).
26, D. "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts" (i. 7).
Christ pointing up
to His ruined temple.
27, A. The lifting up of Iniquity (v. 6 to 9).
Wickedness in the Ephah.
27, B. "The angel that spake to me" (iv. 1).
The prophet almost
reclining, a glorious winged
angel hovering out
of cloud.
28, A. "Ye have wounded the Lord"
(ii. 17).
The priests are
thrusting Christ through with a
barbed lance,
whose point comes out at His back.
28, B. "This commandment is to you" (ii. 1).
In these panels,
the undermost is often introductory
to the one above,
an illustration of it. It is perhaps
chapter i. verse 6,
that is meant to be spoken here by
the sitting figure
of Christ, to the indignant priests.
44. With this bas-relief terminates the series of sculpture in illustration of Apostolic and Prophetic teaching, which constitutes what I mean by the "Bible" of Amiens. But the two lateral porches contain supplementary subjects necessary for completion of the pastoral and traditional teaching addressed to her people in that day.
The Northern Porch, dedicated to her first missionary St. Firmin, has on its central pier his statue; above, on the flat field of the back of the arch, the story of the finding of his body; on the sides of the porch, companion saints and angels in the following order:— [Pg 128]
CENTRAL STATUE.
St. Firmin.
Southern (left) side.
Northern (right) side.
45. Of these saints, excepting St. Firmin and St. Honoré, of whom I have already spoken, [4-28] St. Geoffroy is more real for us than the rest; he was born in the year of the battle of Hastings, at Molincourt in the Soissonais, and was Bishop of Amiens from 1104 to 1150. A man of entirely simple, pure, and right life: one of the severest of ascetics, but without gloom—always gentle and merciful. Many miracles are recorded of him, but all indicating a tenour of life which was chiefly miraculous by its justice and peace. Consecrated at Rheims, and attended by a train of other bishops and nobles to his diocese, he dismounts from his horse at St. Acheul, the place of St. Firmin's first tomb, and walks barefoot to his cathedral, along the causeway now so defaced: at another time he walks barefoot from Amiens to Picquigny to ask from the Vidame of Amiens the freedom of the Chatelain Adam. He maintained the privileges of the citizens, with [Pg 129] the help of Louis le Gros, against the Count of Amiens, defeated him, and razed his castle; nevertheless, the people not enough obeying him in the order of their life, he blames his own weakness, rather than theirs, and retires to the Grande Chartreuse, holding himself unfit to be their bishop. The Carthusian superior questioning him on his reasons for retirement, and asking if he had ever sold the offices of the Church, the Bishop answered, "My father, my hands are pure of simony, but I have a thousand times allowed myself to be seduced by praise."
46. St. Firmin the Confessor was the son of the Roman senator who received St. Firmin himself. He preserved the tomb of the martyr in his father's garden, and at last built a church over it, dedicated to our Lady of martyrs, which was the first episcopal seat of Amiens, at St. Acheul, spoken of above. St. Ulpha was an Amienoise girl, who lived in a chalk cave above the marshes of the Somme;—if ever Mr. Murray provides you with a comic guide to Amiens, no doubt the enlightened composer of it will count much on your enjoyment of the story of her being greatly disturbed at her devotions by the frogs, and praying them silent. You are now, of course, wholly superior to such follies, and are sure that God cannot, or will not, so much as shut a frog's mouth for you. Remember, therefore, that as He also now leaves open the mouth of the liar, blasphemer, and betrayer, you must shut your own ears against their voices as you can.
Of her name, St. Wolf—or Guelph—see again Miss Yonge's Christian names. Our tower of Wolf's stone, Ulverstone, and Kirk of Ulpha, are, I believe, unconscious of Picard relatives.
47. The other saints in this porch are all in like manner provincial, and, as it were, personal friends of the Amienois; and under them, the quatrefoils represent the pleasant order of the guarded and hallowed year—the zodiacal signs above, and labours of the months below; little differing from the constant representations of them—except in the May: see below. The Libra also is a little unusual in the female [Pg 130] figure holding the scales; the lion especially good-tempered—and the 'reaping' one of the most beautiful figures in the whole series of sculptures; several of the others peculiarly refined and far-wrought. In Mr. Kaltenbacher's photographs, as I have arranged them, the bas-reliefs may be studied nearly as well as in the porch itself. Their order is as follows, beginning with December, in the left-hand inner corner of the porch:—