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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Exeter Cathedral Keystones & Carvings: A Catalogue Raisonné
of the Medieval Interior Sculptures & their Polychromy was many
years in the making by its co-authors Avril Kay Henry (AKH) and Anna
Carlton Hulbert (ACH). The work, which began in 1976, consisted both
of ACH’s conservation of the objects, and of the authors’
joint exploration of the objects’ nature and significance. ACH’s
extensive travels in the course of her career as a renowned conservationist
allowed the co-authors to meet only on rare occasions.
Over the years, AKH's work was supported by research grants from the
University of Exeter totalling £6500.
Publication of the material as a website was made possible only by
the Leverhulme Trust's award to AKH in March 2000 of an Emeritus Fellowship
for this specific purpose, to run from August that year. ACH died on
10 April 2000 after a typically courageous four-year battle against
cancer; she lived just long enough to rejoice in the imaginative and
indispensable support of the Leverhulme Trust.
The web-site would never have seen the light of day without encouragement
and practical support from the Devon and Cornwall Technology Transfer
Network. DCTTN's Dr Dave Edmondson (now at Kingston University), a wonderful
"enabler", crucially understood the business and technological
difficulties so long encountered on this project, and provided what
arts academics inevitably need: advice on production of a full Specification,
business acumen, experience of contracts, relevant contacts, including
Tell Communications. Dr. Edmondson continued to provide advice, out
of interest in the project, even after he moved to the University of
Kingston.
A great debt is due also to this website's designers, Tell Communications
of Plymouth (http://www.tellonline.com)
for their instant grasp of the complex design issues involved, their
multiple skills, their professionalism and their patience. Tell Communications
succeeded, in spite of heavy demands made upon them by their client,
in constructing a complex web-site that is both clear and elegant. They
followed Specification admirably, and maintained steady courtesy and
consideration even when faced with alterations, omissions and errors
in the daily provision of material. They tolerated AKH's struggle to
recover all the information lost with her late co-author, her impatience
with the limitations of html, her inconvenient use of out-of-date computer
applications, and her rooted aversion to the A38 to Plymouth.
Subsequent publication and site maintenance by the Visual Arts Data
Service (VADS) is funded by both The Arts and Humanities Research Board
(AHRB) and The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).1 One of VADS's
functions is to make British art-historical archives freely available
on-line. VADS's undertaking the long-term and expensive task of site
maintenance is much appreciated.
The building-based research relied in many varied ways on the Cathedral
clergy and work-staff. The previous Dean, the late Dr Clifford Chapman,
and the Chapter of 1976 instigated the conservation project which was
the genesis of the co-authored work, in which the Dean and Chapter and
their Surveyors showed continued interest. The former Foreman Mason
Mr Peter Dare shared his wide knowledge of the fabric and its stone,
while the late Mr Ernest Huxtable recalled much otherwise unrecorded
information about postwar repairs, and Mr William Darch remembered a
great deal about restoration of the western part of the Nave in the
early 1970s. Thanks are also due to members of ACH's conservation team—a
changing group, too large to list by name, that occasionally included
at its edges some of AKH’s students.
Design of the plan of the Cathedral which acts as the reader's basic
guide to the bosses and corbels (but not to the other objects in the
catalogue, except insofar as the plan enables their rough location to
be identified) has been a model of happy interdisciplinary cooperation.
The authors supplied the basic requirements and form of the plan and
the numbering (based on that of Prideaux and Shafto). Several perceptual
problems were solved in creating this diagram: it is no easy task to
indicate on a two-dimensional drawing the logical relationship between
a ground plan, a vault and its supporting features. For the graphic
design of this information we are indebted to Dr Anthony Clayden, then
Head of the Department of Graphic Design at the Exeter College of Art
and Design, for his generous giving of time and skill. We relied heavily
on assistance from two programmers in University Information Technology
Services who digitised the Plan so that we could assess and improve
its visual effect on repeated printouts: Ms Helen Blackman and Mr Lee
Davis. Mr Neil Brooks, then Computer Development Officer in Information
Technology Services, provided as usual the patient and skilled assistance
upon which AKH has for many years come to depend. Her colleague in the
Department of Physics, Dr Charles Williams, also gave his time generously
when the map had to be translated (not for the last time) to a more
modern graphics format than the original GINO.
Over the years, staff of the University of Exeter Photographic Unit,
Mr Don Lashmar, then Mr Anthony Fisher assisted by Mr Colin Bailey,
braved the scaffolds of the high vault and the mobile towers of the
low.
Help with paint analysis has been received from Ms Josephine Darrah
at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Ms Gillian Lewis and Ms S.
Wakelin at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; Mrs Plahter at Oslo
University, and Dr Ashok Roy at the National Gallery, London.
The Devon and Cornwall Record Society and Mrs Audrey Erskine generously
allowed us to quote from her edition of the Fabric Rolls, which formed
a constant source of reference. Mrs Erskine shared her unrivalled knowledge
of the Rolls even before their publication.
We have valued the stimulus and assistance of discussion with many
scholars: among them Dr Ralegh Radford, Dr Mary Remnant, Dr Charles
Tracey, Dr Jean Givens. Mr Hugh Harrison, of Herbert Read Ltd., Exeter,
repeatedly brought his deep knowledge of the construction of medieval
objects in both wood and stone to specific problems, interrupting his
work to climb up scaffolds and crawl over vaults with us. Dr Nigel Morgan,
while Director of the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University,
helped with the identification of boss 159.
The factual errors remaining in this resource are entirely the responsibility
of AKH, who would be very grateful for notice of them and for any other
feedback from users (to
).
COPYRIGHTS
We are grateful to several authors, publishers and institutions for
permission to use their material. Photographs by F. H. Crossley (copyright
Canon Maurice Ridgway) and C. P. J. Cave have been obtained from the
Conway Library, Courtauld Institute of Art and from the National Monuments
Record respectively, with permission from copyright holders or the managers
of relevant estates. Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit allowed
us to use their splendid photographs of carvings in the Nave and South
Tower. The University of Exeter holds the copyright on all original
images made for the authors for this project. All other photographic
images’ copyright is held by ACH’s Estate or, in a few cases,
by AKH. Copyright vested in the holders named above is claimed in electronic
watermarks on each image; every effort has been made to avoid errors
of copyright attribution, but any discovered should be notified to AKH
or to VADS (info@vads.ahds.ac.uk).
NMR (C. J. P. Cave photographs)
Bosses 30, 93A, 140, 141, 157, 157A, 159, 160, 163, 167, 167A, 169,
171, 171A, 225, 226, 231, 233, 234, 235, 238, 239, 242, 243, 246, 246A,248,
249, 251A, 268, the bombed corbels in the Bishop's Muniment Room, and
corbels H' and P.
Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit
Bosses 203-222 inclusive, corbel T', the South Tower window capitals
and window shaft corbels, and the eight corbels of the South Tower balconies.
Canon Maurice Ridgway:
Photographs by F. H. Crossley, courtesy of Conway Library,
Courtauld Institute, copyright Canon Maurice Ridgway.
Choir and Presbytery corbels A'-F' and A-G; Nave corbels J', J, N'-P',
L-O; boss 158.
The University of Exeter
The Lady Chapel, all the Cathedral's side-chapels and the Song School;
all the aisles; all the vaulting shaft capitals; all triforium heads
except those in the Presbytery and bay G-H; the West Front porches;
bosses 67, 72, 104, 117-121, 196-197, 173-202, 223-24, 226A, 227-30,
231A, 232, 236A-237, 240-241A, 244-45, 247, 250-251, 252, 252A, 255,
261, 262A-267, 268A, 269-275, 355, 369; corbels G', H, and those in
the North Tower.
Chatto & Windus granted permission for the use of the original
vault diagram in Prideaux and Shafto as the basis for our own. Mr Sean
Goddard kindly allowed us to access to his unique colour prints of bosses
235 and 242 taken during the 1975 repainting.
All other copyright in respect of this publication, Exeter Cathedral
Keystones and Carvings, is vested in AKH (a.k.henry@ex.ac.uk), as
is copyright of all the diagrams.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
AKH: Avril Kay Henry,
ATD, NDD, BA, D.Phil (Oxon) trained in painting and sculpture at Wimbledon
School of Art, obtained ATD with Distinction at the University of London
Institute of Education, and after working as an art teacher and freelance
illustrator went up as a mature student to St Hugh's College, Oxford,
where she was subsequently awarded a Fulford Senior Scholarship. Part-time
medieval tutorships at Oxford and Cambridge, and full-time posts at
Homerton College, Cambridge, and Queen Mary College, University of London,
were followed by appointment at the University of Exeter in 1970, where
she was Professor of English Medieval Culture in the School of English,
holding a Personal Chair 1995-2000, the last two years on a research-only
part-time contract. Her research has been mainly manuscript-based, bridging
medieval literature and art, with a special interests in medieval Christian
iconography and the complex interface of text and image.
Her publications include:
The Pilgrimage of the Lyfe of the Manhode: A Critical Edition
of the Middle English Prose Translation of Guillaume de Deguileville's
Pèlerinage de la vie humaine. Vol. I (Books 1-4 Text, Variants
and Introduction). Early English Text Society, Original Series 288.
London: Oxford UP, 1985. xcvi, 356 pp. ISBN 0197222900
The Mirour of Mans Saluacioune: A Middle English
Translation of Speculum Humanae Salvationis: A Critical Edition of
the Fifteenth-Century Manuscript illustrated from Der Spiegel
der menschen Behältnis, Speier, Drach, c. 1475. London: Scolar
Press, 1986; Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986.
347pp. ISBN 0859677168
Biblia Pauperum: A Facsimile Edition [of the Forty-Page Blockbook].
London: Scolar, 1987; Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1987. 178 pp. [Facsimile
and introduction, transcription of the Latin, translation, commentary,
notes and bibliography] ISBN 0859675424.
The Pilgrimage of the Lyfe of the Manhode: A Critical Edition
of the Middle English Prose Translation of Guillaume de Deguileville's
Pèlerinage de la vie humaine. Vol. II (Notes, Glossary, Bibliography)
Early English Text Society, Original Series 292. London: Oxford UP,
1988. pp. 348-615. ISBN 0197222943
The Eton Roundels: Eton College MS 177 “Figurae Bibliorum”.
Aldershot and Brookfield, Vermont: Scolar-Gower, 1990. [A full-colour
facsimile, with a transcription of the Latin, translation, commentary,
notes and bibliography]. ISBN 0859677567
De Quatuordecim partibus beatitudinis (The Fourteen Parts of Blessedness)
Chapter 5 of Dicta Anselmi by Alexander of Canterbury, with
Anselmian interpolations: The Latin, Middle English (`The Joys of
Paradise') and Anglo-Norman versions in MS. Lichfield Cathedral Library
16, ff. 190r-247v. Ed. Avril Henry and D.
A. Trotter. Medium Aevum Monographs, New Series, 17. Oxford: The Society
for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature, 1994. pp. x,161.
ISBN 0907570100
“‘The Pater Noster in a Table Ypeynted’ and Some
Other Presentations of Doctrine in the Vernon Manuscript.” Studies
in the Vernon Manuscript. Ed. Derek Pearsall. Cambridge: D. S.
Brewer, 1990. 89-113. ISBN 0859913104
“The Iconography of the Forty-page Blockbook Biblia pauperum:
Form and Meaning.” Blockbücher des Mittelalters: Bilderfolgen
als Lektüre. [Catalogue of Blockbook Exhibition, Gutenberg Museum
22 June-1 September 1991.] Ed. Gutenberg-Gesellschaft and Gutenberg-Museum.
Mainz: Gutenberg-Museum, 1991. 263-88. ISBN 3922442285
“The West Front III: The Iconography of the West Front.”
Medieval Art and Architecture at Exeter Cathedral. Ed. Francis
Kelly. The British Archaeological Association Transactions for the
Year 1985. London: BAA, 1991. 134-46. ISBN 0901286273 (hbk) 0901286265
(pbk)
“The Castle of Perseverance: Coveytyse copbord Again.”
Satura: Studies in Medieval Literature in Honour of Robert Raymo.
Ed. Ruth Sternglantz and Nancy Reale. Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1998.
275-292. ISBN 1900289121
“Biblia Pauperum: Schreiber Editions I and VIII Reconsidered,”
Oud Holland 95.3 (1981): 127-50.
“Biblia Pauperum: the Forty-Page Blockbook and The Hague, Rijksmuseum
Meermanno-Westreenianum, MS. 10.A.15.” Scriptorium 38.1
(1984): 31-41.
“The Woodcuts of Der Spiegel menschlicher Behältnis (Speculum
Humanae Salvationis) in the Editions Printed by Drach and Richel.”
Oud Holland 99.1 (1985): 1-15.
“The Pilgrimage of the Lyfe of the Manhode: The Structure of
Book l.” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 87.1 (1986): 128-41.
“The Pilgrimage of the Lyfe of the Manhode: The Large Design,
with Special Reference to Books 2-4,” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen
87.2 (1986): 229-36.
“The Iconography of the Forty-page Blockbook Biblia Pauperum:
Form and Meaning,” Blockbücher des Mittelalters: Bilderfolgen
als Lektüre Mainz: Gutenberg-Museum, 1991). 263-88. ISBN 3805312571.
“Lichfield Cathedral MS 16: Its Illuminated Borders and Original
Order”, Scriptorium 48.1 (1994): 39-61 and Pls xxvii-
xxxii.
“The Dramatic Function of Rhyme and Stanza Patterns in The Castle
of Perseverance.” Individuality and Achievement in Middle
English Poetry. Ed. Oliver Pickering. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer,
1997. 147-83. ISBN: 0859914240.
“Acht spätmittelalterliche Glasmalereien aus Köln in der Marienkapelle
der Kathedral von Exeter.” Kölner Domblatt, Jahrbuch des Zentral-Dombau-Vereins
62 (1997): 207:244. ISBN 3922442285
“The Castle of Perseverance: Coveytyse copbord Again.”
Satura: Studies in Medieval Literature in Honour of Robert Raymo.
Ed. Ruth Sternglantz and Nancy Reale. Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1998.
275-292. ISBN 1900289121
“Daring Conflation? A Difficult Image in the Genesis Sequence
of The Eton Roundels (Eton College MS 177, f. 2r).”
Image and Belief: Studies in Celebration of the Eightieth Anniversary
of the Index of Christian Art. Ed. Colum Hourihane. Department
of Art and Archaeology Princeton University in association with Princeton
University Press, 1999. 169-204. ISBN 0691010021, 069101003X.
“Silver and Salvation: A Late 15th-Century Confessor’s
Itinerary Throughout the Parish of Bere Ferrers, Devon, England (Exeter
Dean & Chapter MS 3522).” Transactions of the Devonshire
Association. Forthcoming 2001
ACH: Anna Carson Hulbert
took her BA in the History of Art at London's Courtauld Institute of
Art, and underwent conservation training there. Known internationally
as a conservator, she ran her own conservation business (particularly
in relation to medieval objects) for 21 years, working on site. Commissions
included such major undertakings as conservation of the sculptures of
Exeter Cathedral's main vault, on which she worked from 1976-1982, and
of the great Jesse Tree of 1391 painted on the wooden ceiling of St
Helen's Church, Abingdon. From 1976 right up to the month before ACH’s
untimely death on 10 April 2000, the authors worked together on Exeter
Cathedral Keystones & Carvings whenever their joint circumstances
permitted.
ACH’s publications include:
“The Mediaeval Paint in the Nave.” Friends of Exeter
Cathedral Forty-sixth Annual Report (to 31 March 1976) (1976):
20-21.
“The Polychromed Bosses of the Nave.” Friends of Exeter
Cathedral Forty-eighth Annual Report (to 31 March 1978) (1978):
17-20.
“An Acrylic Resin Consolidant for Polychromed Stone.” Conservation
News 11 (March, 1980): 7.
“Colour on the Bosses and Corbels.” Friends of Exeter
Cathedral Fiftieth Annual Report (to 31 March 1980) (1980): 20-22.
“Formstar Resin: Exeter Cathedral Polychrom[y] Conservation.”
Conservation News 12 (July, 1980): 11.
“Recent Discoveries in the Transepts.” Friends of Exeter
Cathedral Fifty-second Annual Report (to 31 March 1982) (1982):
10-13.
“More Paintings and Polychromy in The Cathedral.” Friends
of Exeter Cathedral Fifty-sixth Annual Report (to 31 March 1986)
(1986): 18-21.
“The Lost Colour of the Cathedral.” Friends of Exeter
Cathedral Fifty-eighth Annual Report (to 31 March 1988) (1988):
10-11.
“The Mystery Knight.” Friends of Exeter Cathedral Fifty-eighth
Annual Report (to 31 March 1988) (1988): 11-12.
“Decoding a Few of the Cathedral's Sermons.” Friends of
Exeter Cathedral Fifty-ninth Annual Report (to 31 March 1989) (1989):
16-18.
“Medieval Paintings and Polychromy.” Exeter Cathedral:
A Celebration. Ed. M. Swanton. Exeter: n.p.: printed for the Dean
and Chapter, 1991. 90-97.
“An Examination of the Polychromy of Exeter Cathedral Roof Bosses
and Its Documentation.” Medieval Art and Architecture at Exeter
Cathedral. Ed. Francis Kelly. British Archaeological Association
Conference Transactions, 11 (for 1985). Oxford: Oxbow Books for the
BAA, 1991. 188-98.
“The Sylke Chantry.” Friends of Exeter Cathedral Sixty-first
Annual Report (to 31 March 1991) (1991): 12-17.
“The Recovery of the Jesse Tree Sequence of Panels in St Helen's,
Abingdon and Workshop Notes on St Mary's Church, Hennock, Devon: the
possible site of a confessional or shriving pew adjacent to the rood
screen; St Andrew's Church, Hacconby, Lincs.: Pulpit; Three images of
the Virgin and Child lit by lamps: St James' Church, Great Ellingham,
Norfolk, St Andrew's Church, Ampthill, Bedfordshire, and St John the
Baptist's Church, Wickhamford, Worcestershire.” [The last subtitle
accidentally unprinted].” The Conservator as Art Historian:
Papers Given at a UKIC Wall Paintings Section Conference on 20 June
1992 at Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Ed. A. C. Hulbert, J. Marsden and
V. Todd. London: United Kingdom Institute for Conservation, 1992. 19-22.
“New Discoveries.” The Conservator as Art Historian:
Papers Given at a UKIC Wall Paintings Section Conference on 20 June
1992 at Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Ed. A. C. Hulbert, J. Marsden and
V. Todd. London: United Kingdom Institute for Conservation, 1992. 33-34.
“Pigeons' Nests and Oysters for Lunch: The Adventures of St John
the Evangelist's Screen.” Friends of Exeter Cathedral Sixty-third
Annual Report (to 31 March 1993) (1993): pp. 12-15.
“St Mary's Church, Astbury, Cheshire: Wall Painting of St George.”
Conservation News 50 (1993): 47.
“Rediscovering the Angels: Current Conservation Work on the Wall
Painting of the Assumption of the Virgin.” Friends of Exeter
Cathedral Sixty-fourth Annual Report (to 31 March 1994) (1994):
23-28.
“New Discoveries: St Margaret's Church, Chippenham, Cambridgeshire;
St Mary's Church, Great Snoring, Norfolk; St Nicholas' Church, Baulking,
Berkshire; The Priory Church...Cartmel...The Canopy of the Harrington
tomb; Holy Trinity, Coventry: the Doom Awaiting Rediscovery.” The
Conservator as Art Historian: Papers given at a UKIC Wall paintings
section conference on 20 June 1992 at Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Ed
A. Hulbert, J. Marsden & V. Todd. London: United Kingdom Institute
for Conservation, 1992. 33-34; with footnote in Conservation News
53 (1994).
“Painted Ceilings and Screens.” Treasures on Earth: A
Good Housekeeping Guide to Churches and Their Contents. Ed. P. Burman.
London: Donhead, 1994, 34-48.
“A Useful Method of Cleaning Soda-Damaged Mediaeval Panels.”
The Picture Restorer 5 (1994): 8-10.
“Feather Dusters in the Fourteenth Century.” Conservation
News 55 (1994): 38.
“Haystacks and Horse-collars: A Tribute to the Cathedral's Forgotten
Labourers.” Friends of Exeter Cathedral Sixty-seventh Annual
Report (1997). (1997): 14-18, 24.
“Conservation of the Fourteenth-Century Ceiling at Saint Helen's
Church, Abingdon.” Painted Wood: History and Conservation: Proceedings
of a Symposium Organised by the Wooden Artifacts Group of the American
Institute for Conservation and the Foundation of the AIC, Held at the
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Virginia, 11-14 November 1994.
Ed. V. Dorge and F. C. Howlett. Los Angeles, The Getty
Conservation Institute, 1998. 287-300.
“English Fourteenth-Century Interior Polychromy: Manuscript Sources
and Workshop Practice at Exeter Cathedral.” Contributions to
the Dublin Congress 7-11 September 1998: Painting Techniques: History,
Materials and Studio Practice. Ed. A. Roy and P. Smith. London:
International Institute for Conservation and Artistic Works, 1998. 35-39.
“Clare Island Cistercian Abbey: Comment”. Art-historical
appendix to R. E. M. Hedges, P. B. Pettitt, C. Bronk
Ramsey & G. J. van Klinken: “Radiocarbon Dates from
the Oxford AMS System”, Archaeometry Datelist, 25. Archaeometry
40. 1 (1998): 237.
“Sister Joanna Reitlinger and the Egg Rationing Following World
War II.” Icon Conservation in Europe. Ed. N. Jolkkonen,
A. Martiskainen, P. Martiskainen, H. Nikkanen. Uusi-Valamo: Valamo Art
Conservation Institute, 1999. 124-135.
Ballantyne, A., and A. C. Hulbert. “19th- and Early 20th-Century
Restorations of English Mediaeval Wall Paintings: Problems and Solutions.”
Peintures Murales: Journées d'études de la S. F. I. I. C.: Conference,
Dijon, 25-27 mars 1993. Ed. M. Stefanaggi. Champs-sur-Marne: Section
Français I. I. C., 1993. 143-51.
Plummer, P., and A. C. Hulbert, “English Polychromed Church Screens
and the Problems of Their Conservation in situ.” Preprints of
the Contributions to the Brussels Congress, 3-7 September 1990: Cleaning
Retouching and Coatings: Technology and Practice for Easel Paintings
and Polychrome Sculpture. Ed. J. S. Mills and P. Smith. London:
International Institute for Conservation, 1990. 47-51.
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