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MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.

NOTICE. SYLVANUS URBAN requests his Friends to observe that Reports, Correspondence, Books for Review, announcements of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, &c., received after the 20th instant, cannot be attended to until the following Month.

BISHOP MALTBY.

MR. URBAN,-The statement in your Magazine, vol. ccxi. p. 304 (and which occurs also in "Notes and Queries," Second Series, vol. xii. p. 24), that Dr. Maltby was appointed Preacher of Gray's Inn in 1817 is inaccurate. The office became vacant on the 24th of June in that year by the resignation of the Rev. John Honywood Randolph, M.A., and on the 12th of November following the Rev. George Shepherd, B.D., was elected Preacher. He held the office till his death in 1849, and early in the following year Dr. James Augustus Hessey, the present Preacher, was appointed.We are, &c.

C. H. and THOMPSON COOPER. Cambridge, Sept. 18, 1862.

[The statement was furnished to us by a member of the legal profession, who gave his name. We are sure that he will be glad to be set right by so high an authority as that of the Messrs. Cooper.]

THE SOUTH POSTERN OF THE NEW CASTLE.

MR. LONGSTAFFE wishes us to correct the strange transfer, by a reporter, of the Norman postern of Newcastle to Alnwick, which was copied into our September Number, (p. 336.) What Mr. L. really said was that, after meeting Mr. Dickson, the Clerk of the Peace, and other gentlemen on the spot, he felt assured that there was no intention of removing the portal itself, and that the ragged walls above, which seemed to be comparatively modern, could scarcely remain with safety. A portion of the

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The Gentleman's Magazine

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HISTORICAL REVIEW.

THE POLYCHROMY OF SWEDISH CHURCHES IN THE MIDDLE AGES a.

BY W. BURGES, Esq.

DURING the present revival of medieval art many discoveries have been made of what are generally called frescoes, although they are almost invariably painted in simple distemper; and a vast deal has been written respecting the various systems of polychromy as practised in the Middle Ages. Unfortu nately, although the various writers and lecturers have told us a great deal concerning the mosaics of Venice and Palermo, as well as of the frescoes scattered all over Italy, they have been able to give us little or no information respecting the way in which the more northern painters went to work. The fact is that the materials were for the most part deficient for any extended study, for although small portions of painting have come to light in various churches, they have never been sufficiently extensive for any general deductions as to the treatment required in an entire building; for what may look exceedingly well when seen in a fragmentary state, may look just as badly when carried out in its integrity. And it is for this reason that our architects and artists, to say nothing of archaologists, have to offer their best thanks to M. Mandelgren for the present work, where he presents us with drawings of several churches retaining their coloured decorations in an unusually complete state. In our own country almost the only complete example of coloured pictorial decoration is the Chapel of St. John the Baptist in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, but somehow or other nobody ever sees it; and beyond a most unsatisfactory print in Dart's History of the Cathedral, I am not aware that it has ever been published. The French Govern

"Monuments Scandinaves du Moyen Age aux les Peintures et autres Ornaments qui les decorent. Dessinés et publiés par N. M. Mandelgren." (Paris.) GENT, MAG. VOL, CCXIII.

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ment are certainly ahead of us in this respect, for a most careful work has been brought out under the auspices of the Government, giving polychromed drawings of the paintings in St. Savin in Poitou. And indeed we have to thank the French Government in some respects for the present work, inasmuch as the Ministre d'Etat enabled M. Mandelgren to complete the book, by subscribing for a certain number of copies; for which kindness the author very properly shews his gratitude by dedicating his labours to Louis Napoleon. So far we can all go with him, but we must stop short when, forgetful of December massacres, Algerian colonization, a fettered press, and a Cayenne penal settlement for some of the best and bravest citizens, to say nothing of the occupation of Rome: the author gravely proceeds to inform us of the great fact that "France is the centre of civilization." Allowing for this single error, M. Mandelgren's book is certainly a most valuable one, whether we view it as a contribution to painting, archæology, or iconography. Of course no chromolithography can be expected to present us with the exact tones of colour to be found in the original work, and we must therefore be careful in drawing deductions in this particular; but this much may be said with truth, viz. that the said chromolithographs are most carefully executed, that the register is remarkably well preserved, and, above all, that all the colours harmonize: although, as has been before observed, it is very doubtful whether any one plate would give exactly the tone of the original.

In his preface M. Mandelgren presents us with an account of the use and progress of his work, which is certainly a most instructive example of what can be effected by what the French call une idée fixe, and by persevering applications in the proper quarters. He tells us that his attention was first drawn to the general neglect of Swedish antiquities during his travels, which extended from 1837 to 1843. On his return he began his work, and got a grant from the Academy of Sweden; in 1850 he had got some of the material together, and forthwith went to Berlin to consult with antiquaries and artists engaged in similar occupations; in 1852 he took another foreign journey to hunt up subscribers; and in 1851 he went to Paris to see about the chromolithography. The next year saw the first number appear at Copenhagen; 1856-57 were occupied in completing the collections; and in 1858 a second visit to Paris enabled

him to obtain a Government subscription, and so proceed with the completion of the work; 1859 is remarkable as being the year in which the Emperor accepted the dedication, and in which the second number appeared; while in 1860 the King of Sweden did what one is apt to imagine that he ought to have done long before, viz. subscribed to the book. The third number appeared in 1861, and the fourth, fifth, and sixth in the present year. Such is the history of the work, which reads more like the experiences of Nicholas Flamel or Denis Zachaire in their search after the philosopher's stone, than those of an artist in the nineteenth century, who is simply trying to obtain subscribers to a book which, when completed, only sells at somewhere about eight guineas. However, there can be no doubt of the value of M. Mandelgren's labour, and it is quite time that we proceeded to the work itself.

The first church illustrated is that at Bjeresjo, near Lund, in the country of Malmohus, at the southern extremity of Sweden. The plan may be described as a simple nave with apsidal chancel, the apse, however, being distinct from the chancel: there is likewise a sort of tower at the west end, which is a parallelogram in plan, and only just clears the nave roof, and finishes in a gabled roof of its own. The nave is covered with quadripartite ribbed groining, the chancel has simply a barrel vault, while the apse finishes in a half dome.

From a comparison with the plans of the two neighbouring churches of Stora Herrestad (1102) and Tryde (1160), it is most probable that the church at Bjeresjo was constructed some time in the middle of the twelfth century: the architectural features are exceedingly plain, being confined to a few mouldings at the church door, and on the imposts of the chancel-arch. A most singular peculiarity, however, occurs in the barrel vaulting of the chancel, for at the apex, and at a little above the springing, are rows of urns, placed mouth downwards, which exactly resemble the urns found in the barrows. Another singularity is, that each of the urns has its mouth covered with a thin piece (half-inch thick) of oak, in which is a perforated ornament. The object of these urns, which also occur in the east and west ends of the chancel, is not very clear, unless we may imagine them to be inserted for acoustic purposes, like the urns Vitruvius describes as being employed in the Greek theatres. Unfortunately our author shews none of these perforations as

appearing in the drawing of the coloured decorations of the vaulting, and we must therefore suppose that the plaster went over these ornamental perforations in the oak covers. We are thus driven to the conclusion that these urns were introduced to lighten the vault, in the same way that similar ones are used in the Circus of Maxentius at Rome. However this may be, it is certainly a most curious piece of construction for a mediæval building, and one which ought to be noticed. Unfortunately the chancel is the only part of the church which retains its painted decorations, but these are very perfect, and give an excellent idea of the way of arranging the various subjects at the time they were executed, which in all probability was somewhere at the commencement of the thirteenth century, although from the clear traces of Byzantine influence they would appear to be of an almost earlier date. The disposition is as follows. The half-dome of the apse is occupied by a seated figure of the Trinity in an aureole. This painting we conceive to have received additions, that is, we suspect the original figure to have been simply our Lord, the crucifix being added afterwards. As to the Holy Ghost, there are no signs of it at all. Two things are particularly observable in this figure of our Lord: the first is, that there is no cross on the nimbus, which we conceive to be an omission of the artist in copying the painting; and secondly, our Lord is blessing in the Western not the Eastern method, which is remarkable, as we shall shortly see very distinct traces of Byzantine influence: on either side of the aureole, both top and bottom, are the evangelistic symbols, while the remaining parts of the ground are filled up with figures of the Blessed Virgin and St. John, the latter represented as an old man with a beard -a decided trace of Byzantine influence, for the Greek Church, as a general rule, represents the saints of the Old and New Testaments at the age at which they died, while we Westerns, on the contrary, give them the age which they actually had when the principal events of their life took place. Thus St. John is always with us represented as young and beardless, because he was the youngest of the Apostles, and because the principal event of his life, viz. the charge of our Lord to him, took place when he was yet a young man.

But to return to the paintings at Bjeresjo. Below the half dome the twelve Apostles are painted on the wall of the apse; they are apparently talking to one another, and all hold

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