Furniture From the Utrecht Psalter - Part VII

Time flies and somehow more than five months have passed us by; it is time for the next-to-last installation of the Furniture of the Utrecht Psalter. We have now reached the letters 'S' and 'T' which are for stand and table. We have already looked at round tables, but this time we will be discussing those with  rectangular forms.

A servant returns a wine jug to a round stand next the dining table
after serving the guests in this scene from the Utrecht Psalter

This illustration is so abstract that it is
almost impossible to say what is on
the pedestal, but sculpture and artwork
would often be placed on such objects

Examples of pedestals and stands abound in medieval manuscripts and other artwork, but these mostly serve as candle or ink stands in scenes depicting the Four Evangelists. Unfortunately, like most forms of furniture from the first seven centuries of the Middle Ages, there are no surviving examples; the Utrecht, and Stuttgart Psalters, especially, inform us that there were many forms and uses for stands other than in the scriptorium. We see that, in addition to holding candles and ink, they could be used as a sideboard or serving stand, as a pedestal for a sculpture, (as they still are) and as a base to support artwork.

Essentially a stand, this "Pricina Pillar" serves
as a bowl for the holy water in a church

The forms and ornamentation for these usually followed after contemporary columns of the period and so we can draw some idea for design of them from looking at the holy water fonts in churches, such as this one from St Mary's Chapel, Marlston, a small hamlet some 40km west of where I used to live in Berkshire. It is made of stone, as are all of the others that one will find, still extant. It is probable that many such stone pedestals would have been found in the great houses, castles and palaces as well. It would also stand to reason, however, that wooden examples also existed, and would have been carved or decorated the same as the more permanent stone examples.

Bellow are some other examples from various artworks which demonstrate various forms and uses for pedestals and stands

From an 11th century book cover, in the MET, this stand
serves as a lectern

A relief sculpture in Maastrich  Cathedral, this shows
a servant tending the king; his towel is on a pedestal

From a 10th century ivory book cover
from Metz, this pedestal holds two
seated figures

From Dumbarton Oaks, this 11th century Italian ivory plaque shows a jug
supported on a tripod stand. Such a stand would clearly have been made
of wood. I saw a small example of this design, used to hold a glass, in the
Louvre, when I visited last year

Due to the somewhat loose execution of many medieval artworks, it is sometimes
 difficult to discern if an object was intended to represent a stand with a level top,
or a sloped surface, as one finds on a lectern. In the case with this sculpture,
however, there can be no ambiguity of the artists intention; he depicted both.
This is part of a beautiful late 12th century tympanum on the cloister church
of St Benoit Sur Loire, (Flurey) in France.

There are 13 of these pedestals or stands depicted in the Utrecht manuscript, each of them different from the others, but none of them, as with all of the other furniture illustrated, has any particularly well defined details.

Similarly, there are also seven tables, shown to have a rectangular form, (but usually not having much more detail than that.) All of them have legs on each of the table's four corners; two of them have the addition of a lower stretcher rail in the manner we are familiar with from tables of the 16th and 17th centuries. 

A rectangular table with a lower stretcher connecting the four legs

Another table, a thousand years newer, (but which most people would consider
very old) showing the same basic design

This mosaic from Ravena shows, again, the same basic table design; this
one was three hundred years old at the time of the Utrecht Psalter. 
It seems that this table design had staying power.

There are several factors which make it very difficult to trace the stylistic trends of tables over the course of the Middle Ages. First, as already stated, there are no examples of any table before the 12th century, and very few from before the 16th. Artists used what they wished, to portray the message they intended to convey,but  this is not always the same as depicting stylistic development and trends. One medieval trend, in fact, was to depict tables with no legs at all. This puts an huge gap in what could be a more informed segment of design history, but because from at least the 9th century, into the 13th, most tables are depicted as a flat or moulded plane with an elaborately draped table cloth, which seems to float in space having no legs at all, we are left to ponder what sorts of supports these tables had.

An ivory fragment from an 11th century box, which shows the typical trend
of portraying a table with no legs. This table does seem to show a moulded
frame around the perimeter. (from the Archaeological Museum, Madrid) 

Much is made of the so-called trestle table, and the table set upon donkeys or horses (depending on where your English comes from), which are supposed to have been so common in the medieval period. From the artwork, there is nothing to support the idea that these were the most prolific forms of tables. In fact, the earliest depiction I have found, to date, clearly showing such a medieval table comes from the 13th century. However, there is a Roman sculpture which shows such a table, so, like many other pre-medieval inventions, they must have continued on, un-portrayed in the artwork, all through the "dark ages", until they reemerged at the end, at which time there was a more prolific campaign of illustrating ordinary objects, and we again find them depicted. In other words, just because no one illustrated one, or more precisely, no illustration of one survives, we cannot say that they did not exist. There are dozens of tools (jeweler's tools, and vices for example) and objects which we have no illustrations of, but deductive reasoning tells us that they were there.

3rd century Roman depiction of a flower and vegetable vendor
His table is the familiar "A-frame" table of the late Middle Ages...

...Very much like this table, but without the Gothic ornament.

There is no such table portrayed in the Utrecht Psalter; the other rectangular tables (four of them) simply have four posts at the corners, and one more has cross stretchers at the ends, but no lateral braces.

A table with end stretchers but none running length-wise

A rare example of a table actually depicted with its legs. This one from the
middle of the 12th century and found in BSB Clm 2929

It is a shame that almost no early medieval furniture still exists, and therefore we have no real idea of what a 9th, 10th, or 12th century table would have actually looked like. We can, by studying the artwork however, at least see that our pre-conceived ideas are generally flawed. (I read a "history of medieval furniture" which stated that "early" [in that authors vocabulary, meaning pre-14th century] days, tables were simply "rough planks placed upon tree-trunks".) Even if the manuscripts present no life-like depiction of a table, we may still be able to realise that there were many forms and styles of tables, just as there are now. When we combine that with the knowledge that all objects were decorated and ornamented according to the the station of the person possessing them, and followed stylistic trends, we can begin to gain some insight into the potential appearance of medieval tables as they may have been.

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Wooden Treasures

As regular readers will be aware, this past summer I took a trip to Europe to do a lot of picture taking. My trip was a sort of "pilgrimage" because I wanted to visit some places that I knew to have medieval treasures of the wooden variety, which I have been wishing to see first-hand.

One place, very high up on my list, was Sankt Maria Im Kapitol, which is one of the 11 Romanesque churches still extant in the city of Köln, Germany. I went there for the specific purpose of seeing, with my own eyes, a magnificent pair of doors which were carved, painted and installed about ten years prior to the Norman conquest of England, which, for many people of the English speaking world, has become one of the key points of reckoning in the history of the Middle Ages. (That event occurred in 1066.)

No tourist will probably ever get to take a picture of
these doors like this because they are sequestered behind
a very heavy iron gate, All the pictures you can get are
by putting the camera lens through the bars. This picture
came from a website of the City of Köln.

Chance is an interesting character and what he leaves behind or takes away in the course of history is a mystery beyond comprehension. Such is the case with this pair of doors which is still in a rather remarkable state of preservation, especially given their age. I have seen doors made in the 18th and 19th centuries in far worse condition than these. Part of the miracle of their preservation is due to the fact that in the 12th century (some hundred years after they were installed, in other words) a porch was built at the entrance where they were hung, and thus the elements did not touch them so severely as they would have, had the doors remained exposed. However, back to the topic of fate and chance, on the opposite side of the church is an identical entrance, which also had an identical porch built at the same time. Obviously it would also have had a pair of doors in its entrance, but there remains no trace of that pair, nor any record of them. ( Nor for that matter, of the two sets of doors which would have been installed in the main entrances.) One can only guess as to their appearance, but it is not a big stretch to imagine them as being similarly carved with depictions from the Old testament, as this was a favourite programme of ornamentation.

The German Wikipedia has a very interesting article on these doors and I will give a few summarising tidbits here for the English speaking audience. As I already mentioned, they were made just after 1050, and were known to already be in place circa the year 1060. Amazingly, they remained in continuous use until 1932. Although they were in a secondary side portal of the church, for quite some time in their history, due to practical reasons related to the monastery architecture surrounding the church, they served as the primary entrance. (This fact also poses the question of what the main doors were like, as main entrance doors were usually made superior in quality and decoration to side doors. Perhaps they were made of bronze and suffered the same fate as countless scores of other such doors; appropriated for their metal content to be used in some infernal war.) 

Top half of the right-hand leaf

The doors stand an impressive 485cm high, which is to say nearly 5 metres, and have a combined width of 2 and 1/2 metres. (the main entry doorways are nearly double that width) Each door "leaf" is made of an heavy oak base of three parallel planks over which are attached the panels and frames of carved and painted walnut. Each panel is surrounded by three separate carved borders and a flat panel which has painted on script, notating the events portrayed on their respective panels. To assist in keeping all the moulded pieces in place, large carved knobs are attached with heavy ornamental nails at the corner of each panel. It was my observation that no two of the surviving knobs has the same design as any other.

Each leaf of the door is divided into 13 panels of three different sizes, this gave a pleasant sense of rhythm and balance to the overall unit. At the top, the centre and near the bottom are three larger horizontal panels, the two upper ones each have four smaller, nearly square panels below them, whilst the lowest horizontal members have two vertical rectangles under. Each panel has a composition of one or more scenes related to the life of Christ. The whole door is reputed to be the best preserved sculptural depiction of that subject from the 11th century, in the whole of Europe. It is also one of a very limited number of medieval sculpted wooden doors still in existence, but is far from the oldest, as there is, in St Sabina, in Italy, a pair of carved wooden doors from the 5th century (which is actually a bit of a stretch to include as "medieval" since that period technically begins some 67 years after those doors were made. However, there is no reason to think that the construction of doors would have had any drastic shift in such a short period of time, and thus can be counted as an example of that art at the dawn of the Middle Ages.)

Detail showing the three carved borders to each
panel along with the flat border with the painted
script and the heavily carved framing for the
doors

There is, apparently, some discussion among scholars as to whether the doors were made by one or more artists, and there is some allusion in the article to a point which I like to bring up whenever I get the chance; which is that although this may be the only surviving work from that artist or group of artists, it represents an entire career, of one or several individuals, and bears testament to the quality of work which they were producing. I should also point out that since no one simply woke up one morning and began carving, it further bears witness to one or more masters and all of the work that they would have produced in the span of their own career(s). When we contemplate this, we begin to realise the vast quantity of what has been lost to time, and the amount and quality of ornament that originally existed. In order for craftsmen to have a career, they obviously need to have enough work to keep them employed in that field. 

First picture; one of only two depictions of furniture from the right-hand door.
Second picture two chairs in one scene from the left-hand door. Notice that
the second artist took more care to show more of the forms of the furniture.

One of the reasons given for the opinion that at least two different artists worked on the doors is because the figures on the left-hand panels are a bit more stiff and linear in form than those on the right panels. Another discrepancy pointed out, is the fact the the three horizontal left-hand panels have, each, two scenes, whilst the matching right-hand panels only have one. My own observation to add to this, is that the left-hand panels seem to give more attention to details of furniture in the scenes and there are far more such objects depicted. (on the right-hand door there is only one table and one bench) whilst the left-had leaf has a bed, several chairs, a table, and an altar.

The second piece of furniture depicted on the right-hand side, but this is a very
rare example of a table that actually has leg. For some reason it was a fad for
several hundred years to depict tables that seemed to float in space. This is a
great example to counter most people's notion of planks of wood placed on
trestles as the primary form of a medieval table. 

In Wikipedia, there is a comparison of this door to the so-called Bernwardstür  a surviving early (ca 1015) 11th  century bronze door, but to me, this comparison is another reminder of just how few medieval artifacts still remain. Frankly, the wooden doors we are discussing are "like" the bronzes as much a tulip is "like" a rose. There simply are no other tulips to compare it with. In my opinion, they are much more in keeping with the Magdeburg Doors of about 100 years later, but again, that comparison is more of the overall look of the doors, with their sculpted borders and round corner knobs to each panel, than in the general style of the carvings, all three of which are not particularly "like" any of the others and bear witness to three distinct "schools" of sculptural style. Basically, if you are in a dessert full of cacti and brambles, it will be very tempting to draw comparison with the only three very different flowers that you happen to find even if they are not botanically related at all. (by clicking the live links you can view those doors for yourself)

A very quaint bit of well preserved painted decoration. This tells me that the
"Folk Art" paintings of so much 18th and 19th century work was but a
continuation of centuries old painted ornament

For me, there are two very important points to consider about these doors, first, as another German language Wikipedia article points out, it was almost always, prior to the 15th century, "mandatory" for carved wooden objects to be painted (or gilded, or both), and these doors have enough of their original paint left to give us a glimpse of how they would have appeared when new. There is no gold left on them, but if one compares these doors to the illuminated art of the same time period, he will quickly realise that the pale yellow colour in the background of all of the scenes was originally the yellow bole used in the gilding process. These doors would have been gleaming with red, yellow, blue, green, black, white and lots of gold, just as the finer illuminated manuscripts of their day. (and doubtless panel paintings, none of which have survived were.) (do not think of modern printed and plastic colours, but rather of natural earth and mineral ones.)

My personal favourite scene from these doors, but I cannot really say why,
other than that I like it. Click here to see a picture on the internet which
gives a better sense of the surviving paint.

The second point concerns what I have already mentioned about what this piece tells us regarding the state of decoration and ornament in its time. Most people think of flat heavy wooden doors with big iron straps, but this was not for important building with sufficient revenue. In medieval times people liked to spend as much or more money than they had to decorate and ornament their possessions, and architecture. This is one rare surviving example that can very emphatically point that out at the same time as it proclaims very loudly the quality and skill of the 11th century woodcarver's skills.

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You Can Always Discover Something New

Last Weekend I finally made it to the Cloisters, part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I have been wanting to go there for the 20 years I have been here in America, and had intended to go last August when I was at the MET, but realised there would not be enough time. It was a good thing I did not try, because it took me the entire day to see almost everything. They were shutting for the evening as I was making my way through the last gallery.

The Mérode Altarpiece in the Cloisters, New York

One of the highlights of the Cloisters, as far as artwork is concerned, is the Mérode Altarpiece. which was (probably) painted in the second half of the second decade of the 15th century, (1425-30) and is most often attributed to Robert Campin, though this is not a universally accepted fact. Sadly, the painting bears no artist's signature so we will probably never know, with absolute certainty, who painted it.

This pieces is important for those, like me, who have an interest in furniture and interiors from the medieval period, I have poured over pictures of it in books, for more than thirty years. Once pictures began to be available online, I studied more close-up pictures via this medium. There are remarkable details, and lifelike representation abound in this triptych, causing people to jump to the conclusion that it is a 'photo-representational' image of an actual interior. It is not.

This is still artwork, just as much as the Easter Island figures are, and it was made for much the same purpose; namely an artist giving expression to what he wished to convey to his audience by utilising his skills to the best of his ability. In fact, there are several details in the painting which demonstrate that it is not a photographic representation, as some details have been omitted or are not properly represented, such as the fact that the teeth on the saw are much too large for the scale of the other objects on the floor. If one were to take everything at face value in this image, the saw would be what is termed in modern tools as a 2.5TPI rip-saw, in other words, it has about 2 and 1/2 teeth for each inch (25mm) of length. This would be on a scale of a very heavy rip saw for large timbers, not a carpenters saw for cutting the sorts of things that he is seen working on.

Although this is not a representation of an actual setting, many of its details were obviously observed first-hand by the artist, and thus give us some valuable glimpses into 15th century life. One of the things that I was most interested in, was the towel bar on the back wall. This represents a very nicely carved and painted object. My interest in it is primarily because it clearly represents a glossy painted finish. Most people assume medieval paint to have been dull and flat, but this clearly shows a high gloss finish on this object.

Whilst the details to the carving and metalwork are very clear, the means
with which it is attached to the wall remains ambiguous.

My second new observation from a in-person study of this painting came in a happy observation of Saint Joseph's shoe. I have long suspected that respectable people's shoes would have been polished, but until last week, had no clear evidence for it. On studying this painting, however, one can see the clear representation of a well polished wax finish to his shoe. There are a surprising number of shoes from throughout the medieval period preserved in museums, but they are predictably in very shabby condition, and thus not an accurate representation of their original appearance. This detail in the Mérode Altarpiece gives us a wonderful glimpse of an early 15th century shoe in good condition.

A fine shine on a well formed pair of shoes
The shoe is inside a patten, which was a wooden sole one wore over their
shoes when going out of doors in poor weather or on bad streets; it was
intended to keep the mud off of of ones shoes

This is about the best condition one could hope to find of a medieval shoe,
but it was no match for the ravishes of the intervening 600+ years.
(late 14th century shoe on a special exhibit at the MET)

Lastly, as a tool enthusiast, I cannot pass up on mentioning the well used, but well cared-for condition of the handles of the tools pictured on St Joseph's workbench. These are tools which have been carefully crafted and well oiled with a soft glowing luster to them. I recognised the look at once, because many of my own tools have that same look. I am happy to see this, because most medieval tools one sees are too badly deteriorated to give any indication of their original finish and most modern reenactors leave their tools unfinished and raw, which gives a false impression of how they would have originally been. Tools were expensive, and people who owned them would have taken care of them; they were the means of their very existence.

Well made and well cared-for tools on the bench. Because the artist was not
a cabinetmaker, he failed to properly observe the bevels on a sharpened
chisel; to someone who sharpens and uses them almost daily, this has the
look of an un-sharpened chisel ("fishtail gouge" beneath the hammer)

Some of my own tools, with handles made by myself, save the antique cramp.
When one knows his business it is easy to spot those same details in a painting.

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Assumptions and Closed Minded Prejudices

This past week I was reading something related to a stone monument which is supposed to mark the grave of a certain Boethius, who was bishop of Carpentras, a town in southern France, from 583 to 604. According to what I read, "the sculptor was ignorant of Greek, and no doubt all language, because he has placed the cross in reverse, with the 'Omega' before the 'Alpha'".

The plaque reads, "stone tomb of  Boethius, bishop of
Carpentras and Vasque from 583-604"
Picture from Wikipedia

The French Wikipedia says that this stone was originally ornamented with semi-precious stones and glass, (presumably in the little squares within the cross, for example). It does not say so, but from what I know of artwork at this time, and bishop's tombs, it would have been covered in gold foil or gilded as well. This is also only part of the original tomb.

The thing I take issue with, here, is the idea that people automatically assume that the artist was "illiterate". For the past couple of weeks I have been reading The History of the Franks, written by Gregory of Tours in the late 6th century. He speaks a lot of the goings on in France at the end of the 6th century, and even mentions this Boethius by name. He obviously did not mention his death or tomb, because Boethius died about 13 years after Gregory did, but one does not get the impression from reading his work that artists of his day were ignorant or uneducated. In fact, the remarkable thing one gleans from reading this work is how much life seems to go on, in his mind, as it always had. He sees himself, and the people of France as the natural extension of the "Gauls" of the Roman period, and mentions nothing about a "fall" of the Empire. In fact, he refers many times, in his work, to the "emperor" (Justinian, who's portrait can still be found in two basilicas in Ravena). The only thing out of the ordinary which he mentions are many unnatural phenomena such as a couple meteor strikes, and other wild natural disasters, and the Franks seemingly incessant penchant for violence against one another. 

Because we are so programmed to think that this period was the deepest of the "Dark Ages" whenever we see an anomaly like this, the automatic assumption is that the person involved was ignorant. We do not even stop for a second to contemplate whether or not there could be another explanation. This is proof positive of our viewpoint, and therefore there is not need to give another second's worth of consideration. I could not disagree more strongly!

While it might be possible that the artist was in fact illiterate, this is "proof" of nothing. Artists worked from models, other works, or pictures in books. Might it be possible that this was not originally the tomb stone, but a stone mould for casting a bronze plaque for the tomb? (if it was a mould, the cast piece would not be reversed) It might also be possible that what this artist had as an example was a mould for a cross and he forgot to reverse it. How many times have modern people done the same thing? I know I have several times, such as when I wanted to carve a stamp for my monogram. I guess I must be illiterate as well.

Matrices for embossing metal. These are for embossing so the image
would look the same in the stamped metal. I have an image of a fragment
of a carved stone from Cluny which was used as a mould but cannot
seem to find where I filed the picture. A casting makes a reverse
image of what is carved.

If anyone getting something backwards is an automatic indication of illiteracy, then what does that say about the curators of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York? I noticed this fragment on the wall when I visited last summer. You see, we cannot assume just because someone did something other that the way it is "supposed to be" that they are automatically illiterate or ignorant.

Which is a sign of worse illiteracy, backwards or upside down?
A stone slab displayed in the met with the "Alpha and Omega" upside-down 

 Perhaps there is another excuse, and in the case of the MET, we would naturally give that assumption. In this case, if the Alpha and Omega are right side up, then "Chi Ro" symbol for Christ (the X with another vertical line and and half loop which is an R) would be upside down. So perhaps here is another example of another "illiterate". If we can give a modern person the benefit of doubt and possible human error, why not for the anonymous 7th century mason as well? 

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The Utrecht Psalter and its Furnishings - Part IV

In my ongoing, alphabetically organised discussion of the furniture and furnishings found in the Utrecht Psalter, we come to 'O', which is for organ, as in a pipe organ

One of three organs illustrated in the Utrecht Psalter
This one inferres levers and bellows for four people, though none are shown
pumping them and only two of the four handles are pictured

Some people might find this amazing, but the pipe organ is actually a very ancient instrument. It was supposedly invented in the 3rd century BC by Tesibius of Alexandria. However, as with many inventions of history, there were doubtless other instruments of similar principle which had already been in existence and which he either made improvements on, or which worked on a principle similar to a field he was famous for working in (hydraulics), and thus tradition came to associate that object with him,

This mosaic comes from the floor of a 3rd century Roman villa in the
 present-day town of Nennig, Germany. The villa was not destroyed
 until a Viking invasions of 882 meaning that the nobility of this region
would have had direct contact with this image for the first four 
centuries of the "Middle Ages"

However, and whenever the pipe organ came into being, there are numerous portrayals of organs of many forms and sizes from Greek and Roman art in many different mediums. According to The Organ; An Encyclopedia, the organ was "re-introduced" into Western Europe from Byzantium in the time of Pepin the Short, (in 757 AD) and Charlemagne. While these two incidents are recorded and thus textual evidence for actual events, the fact that they are illustrated in the Utrecht Psalter and the Stuttgart Psalter testify to them being fairly commonplace at the beginning of the 9th century. The above mentioned Encyclopedia also speaks of another, which was installed in Louis the Pius's palace by a "Venetian cleric" (826). There are also 9th century records of organs having been installed in an abbey in Bages, Catalonia, as well as in Köln, Halberstadt, and Rheims. Pope John the VIII requested an organ and an organist to be sent to Rome, from the Bishop of Freising, in 873. (Because of the nature of Humans and politics, this in no way implies that there was no one in Rome or Italy who could have done the job - notice the "Venetian cleric" cited above!)

The Encyclopedia goes on to cite (though a bit ambiguously) evidence of 8th, 9th and 10th century organ making in the British Isles. (This actually contradicts the author's statement that it was "re-introduced" to the "west" in the 9th century.)

In doing a bit of my own research for this blog, I came across several references, and pictures of the remains of a 3rd century Roman organ and a modern replica of it found in the National Museum in Budapest. It seems that it belonged to the dormitory of a fire brigade in the town of Aquicum (Budapest). The remains are in remarkably good condition given that the building was destroyed by fire (the ironies of history) and had then been buried from the 5th century until 1932.

The metal remains of organ pipes and mechanical parts of a 3rd century
Roman organ found in Aquicum (Budapest) in the 1930's. At right is a modern
interpretation of the organ based on contemporary artwork, but without any
decoration which would have originally been found on the wooden case 

This seems to be of a small personal sized organ, such as another portrayed in the Utrecht Psalter. (pictured below) One can deduce that just as in the later Middle Ages, and even today, there were many varieties and sizes of organs for different uses in the early medieval period.

An interesting note of the ever recurring battle of cultural "morality" and music comes from a quotation concerning St Jerome (342-420 AD) who advised a mother, regarding the virtuous upbringing of her young daughter, that she must "let her be deaf to the sound of the organ" for its "sensual" sounds would allow her to fall into a life of "committing every conceivable sin". Sounds like a Highway to Hell for sure. (rock on Angus!)

The third organ depicted in the Psalter is even larger than the first one pictured. It is shown with four pump operators and two organists. An organ such as the one the artist had in mind must have been spectacular to see and hear.

A small organ, quickly depicted with an economy of line. No doubt the artist
had an organ such as the Aquicum example in mind.
It was not necessary to depict every pipe to represent the idea of an organ 

A very large, elaborate and highly ornamented organ. (represented in typical
quick stokes and a minimal use of line, as seen throughout this Psalter)

Such an organ as this must have been what the chronicler Wulfstan of Winchester, writing in the mid 10th century, had in mind, in describing an organ that required "seventy strong men" to operate (the bellows) and two men "of concordant spirit" to operate the slides (keys); the sound of which "thunder[ed]...reverberating to such a degree that everyone stopped his gaping ears with his hands...". (A 10th century rock concert? cool!) As is typical with any medieval illustration, the artist only used the amount of visual imagery necessary to portray his intentions, utilising his personal artistic style, and did not represent an organ as we would like to see it in a photograph. The organ described by Wulfstan had ten pipes for each of forty notes on the organ, in other words 400 pipes; no medieval artist had the need or the inclination to draw so many. Given the prerogative of medieval illuminators, this illustration could actually well represent an organ as large as that described by Wulfstan, as four men could well stand for seventy. It is my belief that it can stand for one so big, one as depicted with four men, or others with any number of four or more operators, based one the representational nature of medieval art. (Oftentimes one even finds a Last Supper scene with only four or five characters, where space did not allow for the full 13.)

One of two organs depicted in the Stuttgart Psalter (also early 9th century)
The artist has also depicted a man holding a section of tubing used to convey
the air from the bellows to the organ. 

It is very interesting to compare the Utrecht Psalter and the Stuttgart Psalter for their very different ways of treating the subject matter and for the style of illustration. In the Stuttgart Psalter, the artist has included a lot more visual information, such as suggesting the structure of the platform on which the organ is built, as well as a 'shorthand' indication of acanthus leaf decoration to the top. What he has not properly observed, or did not care to accurately indicate in his drawing, is exactly how the air tube connects to the organ. and has simply shown it 'branching' out from the side of the pipes. (These organs differ from those in the Utrecht Psalter, in that they are operated by 'airbag' bellows, as opposed to ones with some sort of stationary pump.)  This does not tell us that he never saw an organ, it simply informs us that he knew enough about organs to know that there was a tube connecting the bellows to the air chamber, but he had no idea how it worked from a design standpoint, or he had no idea how to efficiently draw in an accurate manner. (and probably did not care)

The organ seems to have changed very little during the middle ages; an illustration of a 14th century organ will quickly demonstrate this fact. The main thing that changed, as with all medieval furnishings, was the style of applied ornament to the general form, which evolved with people's tastes in overall decoration as time progressed.

An early 14th century manuscript on the vices of men. This illustration is one
of  two, dealing with "gluttony", and shows a Middle Eastern court scene with a
very fat ruler and his court entertainment, including these musicians. We will
avoid the obvious political implications which do not seem to have changed
 much in 700 years, and point out that this organ is very much like the
 3rd century Aquicum example pictured above.

Videre Scire

Medieval Day

More than two years ago I embarked on a mission of sharing with others what I have been learning from my research on medieval furniture. In fact this was the primary reason for me beginning this blog, which is now in its third year. I have been hoping for opportunities to meet others who share my passion for medieval things, and to demonstrate what I have learned. This has been a fruitful year in that regard. Last summer I gave a talk about evidence for tools which no longer exist. A few weeks ago I gave a lecture on a general overview of medieval furniture, and yesterday I was invited to participate in my first ever Medieval Festival which took place at Catholic University in Washington DC. I pitched up in my renaissance outfit because as of yet, I have no medieval gear. Hey, this was my first time ever to encounter a group of real live Middle Ages enthusiasts of any kind. At least I looked good even if not dressed for any of the right centuries!

A couple Hundred Years War era (style) tents lend a good medieval atmosphere
to the festival
I only thought to take a picture of this as everyone was packing up to leave

It was a rather small affair with only a dozen or so demonstrations, and a small audience of 50 or so, but nonetheless it was an enjoyable event. For me, the highlight was a play put on by the Latin and Greek club, which included my new friend who was actually responsible for getting me connected with this event. The play was an English translation of a play written in the 12th century by Vitalis of Blois. (which was an adaptation of a Roman play written by Plautus, in the 3rd century BC) It is a comedy, and quite a good one at that. I would highly recommend everyone to try to read it, but was unable to find any link to it on the web. I was also too engrossed in listening to it to think to take a picture of the performance.

My table set up with a few medieval items as well as a few tools I have made
over the past 15 years

My involvement in the event was part demonstration and part technical presentation. I chose the topic of painted furniture and the way that gesso was usually used before the paint. The discussion centered around the way that, when the gesso is damaged by water, all traces of it and the overlaying paint will disappear, leaving only a plain, raw wooden surface. (The same basic message as my Something is Missing post of a few weeks ago)

Discussing the Middle Ages in a renaissance costume using a computer
and a microphone. This was a hard-core-authentic group

Discussing how gesso is made and used

For my demonstration I wanted to do a little planing but I realised that it would not be good to be doing a 'medieval' demonstration with an 18th century plane, especially since I am keen on dispelling the myth that "planes did not exist before the 14th century". As of Friday, I had no medieval plane, though I have thought many times that I should and would like to make one. I realised that necessity is a great motivator, and so I managed to design, make, decorate, and finish one in less than 10 hours. (and it even worked)

 A new plane made in time for the festival; it is based on existing
4th through 9th century examples
The blade is borrowed from an 18th century style plane I made 12 years ago

I thought the wood was Bradford Pear when I pulled it out of my firewood pile 10 years ago, but since then I have realised it was not, What it actually is, though, I cannot say; it has a lovely curly figure to it.

An example of  a small bone plane

A wooden example; this one with a bit of Migration Period carving
both planes ca 5th-8th century

These two planes have been an inspiration to me since I first saw them; they were the prototypes for my plane which is actually larger then these are, but in the same style.

I do not like copying anything, but I draw heavily on appropriate examples;
this ornament derives from the Book of Kells

Decorative embellishment in the Book of Kells which served as inspiration

Since one of the prototype planes had knot-work ornamentation to it, I felt that that fact gave me license to make my own strap/knot-work design. Believe it or not, working it out on paper and then carving it took as long as the entire process of making the plane in the first place. That knot-work did my head in for a while. I did not get it all correct, but I learned enough doing it that when I do another one it will be much easier. I always have to admire the skill and patience which went into these interlace decorations; if you start to actually study and examine them closely, you will find many of them are mind-boggling!

Demonstrating the new plane

It seems to work. This is actually a smoothing plane
but the table did not lend itself to using it as such

Hopefully this will be the first of many future events of this sort. Vivamus Historia!