Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

Carved ^orH in Cardiganshire Churches 7.-CORBELS AT CARDIGAN. MONGST the rude and plain churches of this county, from the majority of which anything like fine carved work in stone is •J ■ absent, the chancel of Cardigan Church stands pre-eminent for its dignity of proportion, and for the excellence of its window tracery and other stone work, all dating from the 15th century. Just within the present chancel arch are two corbels in the shape of finely carved heads, which look as though they must have supported the original arch to the chancel. The head on the North side is that of a lady, wearing the characteristic head-dress of the middle of the 15th century, and in this way the carving furnishes a sure indication of the date of the work. The late Mrs. Pritchard in her book on Cardigan Priory (p. 116) is mistaken in describing the head as crowned, and her conclusion that it is intended to represent Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry VI., is, therefore unwarranted. Facing the lady's head on the South side of the Chancel is the finely sculptured and very expressive face of a man, a grotesque appearance being imparted by the fact that the forefinger of his right hand is represented as inserted in the right eye, while the middle finger is pulling the mouth askew. Mrs. Pritchard has not been more fortunate in her description of this figure than in the case of its companion. She says, in ecclesiastical architecture this is signifi- cant of the Beam and the Mote (Cardigan Priory pp. 116-117). But this would only be true when the carving actually shows the mote in the eye, which is not the case at Cardigan. It is evidently an example of a rather large class of figure sculpture of the kind, wherein the exuberant fancy of the old craftsmen, and especially of monastic workmen (as they would have been at Cardigan) loved to decorate churches with caricatures or monstrosities in the shape of grotesque grimacing faces. The closest parallels to this grimace at Cardigan are to be found at Beverley Minster and Dorchester Abbey (Oxon). In the former of these a man wearing a fool's head-dress has a finger of the left hand in the left eye and with the right hand distorts his mouth at Dorchester a face is represented with the mouth widely distended by both hands.