FINISHED READING - Rood Screens by Richard Hayman

 

I know this is niche, and probably only for 'church larking' nerds like myself. This is a slim volume but very informative book about the development and relevance of medieval rood screens. Since the early days of temple worship there has always been a chamber, at some remove from the general temple concourse. Its often referred to, and treated as if it is, a Holy of Holies. A place where the god resides or can be summoned by semi-secret rituals that take place, often behind closed curtains. 

In medieval church architecture, we initially have a basic nave and a chancel structure. This then develops side aisles specifically to house separate shrines and create a processional route around the church for figures of Christ, The Virgin Mary or dedicated saint figures to be processed around it. These statuary were often housed in the chancel, as were all the accessories for communion, close by or on the high altar. The chancel was, in this sense, symbolically representing the Holy of Holies. 

The chancel also enshrined a medieval social division by class, between common folk who gathered informally in the nave, and the choir where the great and the good of local dignitaries and religious officiators would be seated. This cordoning off of the sacred space, incorporating those who had social status and power, required the further construction of a fixed delineating boundary. Hence the development of the rood screen and its loft, which served both a religious and secular elie purpose.

Victorian gothic recreation of a Rood

The rood screen with its loft, has roughly three levels. The lower dado, which contains painted panels featuring internationally known and local saints, portraits of figures from the bible. Above this a sequence of elaborately carved arches with pierced tracery so those in the nave can see through to the high altar and view any ritual taking place. This holds up the rood loft, which often has a pelmet or balcony where statuary and candles could be displayed, or act as a pulpitum from where sermons and bible readings could be read to the worshippers in the nave. This loft would often house a timpanium which was a painted representation of Jesus on the cross supported by John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary, or a three dimensional carved representations of the same, known as the the Rood. 

This Rood Screen was an extremely elaborate constructions, beautifully executed usually in wood which has been richly carved, painted and gilded. It became one of the visual artistic glories of the medieval church The making of a rood was financed through public patronage, usually under the auspices of one wealthy local family. A rood screen could take several years to be constructed. Paintings had to be left for several months to fully dry, and then they required varnishing and gilding. So this was never going to be a short term financial commitment. The death of a patron, or the outbreak of war or pestilence, could seriously delay the completion of a rood screen by decades

Its commonly misunderstood that rood screens were completely destroyed or removed during the Reformation. this was actually very rare. The accusations of idolatry, were mainly focused on specific imagery. The Rood carving itself, or more commonly on manufactured pilgrimage sites, and the money being extracted through the veneration of saints and their relics. When you see faces of figures scratched out on a rood screen, this is more likely a consequence of later post civil war puritan iconoclasm during Cromwell's Republic. Rood Screens simply went out of fashion for a while, when imagery and ostentatious symbolic rituals were replaced by the written word, and literacy had become more widespread. 

There were regional variations in how much the religious climate deterred the presence or preserved Rood Screens. Norfolk, being always a bit of a cultural backwater, still has the highest numbers of medieval rood screens surviving in England, either complete or in part. So I am quite fortunate in living in a county where there are very rich pickings to be found in even the smallest most insignificant church. If you want to know more about Rood screens, then this is a very handy introduction to the subject. Its very well illustrated by photographs of some of the best examples to be found in England. and provides a handy list at the back of where they can be found, and further reading.

CARROT REVIEW - 6/8