Studio: international art (10.1897)

Early Scandinavian JVood-Carvings

this period ; and on the other face is a dragonesque and before the influence of the Byzantine style began
beast intertwined with a serpent. The style of the to make itself apparent. In the tenth and eleventh
decoration of the Jellinge monument corresponds centuries the beast-motive was in the ascendant;
very nearly with that of a Danish headstone of a and, although various portions of the animals had

scroll-work terminations some-
what resembling leaves, true
foliage had not yet come in.
The four-legged beast with
dragonesque head, the dragon
with two forelegs and serpen-
tine tail, and the serpent
constitute almost the sole
elements of the decoration
of the Danish monuments
bearing inscriptions in later
Runes {i.e., the shorter al-
phabet subsequent to the old
Northern and Anglian Runes).
The attenuated bodies of these
creatures are bent into all sorts
of loops, and interlaced in an
extraordinary fashion. It is
not easy to say whether the
four-legged beast was derived
from a classical source origi-
nally, but it possesses several
features which are very strongly
Scandinavian: (i) the pear-
shaped eye with the pointed
end in front and the round end
behind; (2) the spiral curves
where the limbs join the body ;

(3) the claws, which are two
in number instead of three;

(4) the tendency of the ex-
tremities to break out into
scrollwork; and (5) the atti-
tude of the head — turned
backwards towards the tail, in-

FIG. 3.—CARVED WOODEN' CHAIR FROM TYLDAI.ENS CHURCH. HACK Stead of forwards.

In the wood carvings of the

grave dug up in 1852 in St. Paul's Churchyard, and twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which form the sub-
now preserved under a glass case in the Guildhall ject of this article, it is possible to trace the influence
Library, London (see Archmological Journal, vol. of the style of the earlier native work, especially in
xlii. p. 251). the looped curves and the frequent occurrence of the
On this stone will also be seen the same four- serpent and dragon as motives; but otherwise the
footed beast with dragonesque head as at Jellinge, introduction of Christianity, and with it designs of
and our special object in directing attention to Byzantine origin, wrought a great change for the
these sculptured stones of the beginning of the better in Scandinavian art. In place of the rather
eleventh century is to give an idea of the predomi- meaningless scroll and bulbous terminations noticed
nant art-motives of the period immediately preceding on the stone from St. Paul's Churchyard, we now
the introduction of Christianity into Scandinavia,* get the tails of the beasts and dragons developing

* Although the Jellinge stone has the figure of Christ upon

into really graceful foliage.

it the art is purely pagan. The best examples of carved woodwork now sur-

14