| Despenser Reredos | |
|---|---|
| Despenser Retable | |
 The reredos in St Luke's Chapel, Norwich Cathedral | |
| Year | 1382 (Julian) |
| Medium | gold leaf, glass, wood, paint |
| Subject | Passion of Jesus, Crucifixion of Jesus, Ascension of Jesus  |
| Dimensions | 87.63 cm (34.50 in) × 260.35 cm (102.50 in) |
| Location | United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 52°37′55″N 1°18′04″E / 52.6319°N 1.3011°E |
The Despenser Reredos, also known as the Despenser Retable, consists of five panels of art illustrating biblical scenes from the end of Christ's life. They were commissioned by the Bishop of Norwich, Henry Despenser, in 1382 following his destruction of a rebel peasant army at the Battle of North Walsham the previous year. Historians generally consider him to have been using the opportunity to remind the peasantry of their social position following the Peasants' revolt.
Introduction
The Despenser Reredos is a medieval altarpiece used in St Luke's Chapel in Norwich Cathedral,[1] which has been used as a parish church since the 16th century.[2] The reredos was discovered in the cathedral in 1847, having been converted into a table and kept for years in an upper room, with the altarpiece paintings hidden underneath. The reredos had been sawn off at the top and the four corners had been cut out to enable table legs to be inserted.[3]
Following the discovery of the reredos, it was displayed in a glass case in the cathedral's south ambulatory.[4]
Commission
It has been suggested from the existence of heraldic shields around the borders of the reredos that it was made as an act of thanksgiving following events in Norfolk during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. The shields would have represented local families who had wanted to thank God for the defeat of the rebels at the Battle of North Walsham in June that year,[5] most notably Henry le Despenser, who led the forces against them.[3][6] It is possible that the reredos was commissioned by Despenser, an English nobleman and the Bishop of Norwich at the time of the Peasants' Revolt.[note 1] A link with the Revolt cannot be proved.[8]
In 1898, the English antiquary William Henry St John Hope examined the surviving heraldry on the reredos, and suggested family names for seven of the shields. Hope's analysis of the shields has since been reinterpreted by modern researchers; their findings may actually connect the reredos with the Peasants’ Revolt even more closely. Hope identified “clear traces” of the Despenser family arms on the frame, but his photograph of 1898 does not show it.[3] His suggestion that the arms of Stephen Hales, who was captured by the rebels, is included on the reredos, is probably correct.[9]
The medievalist Sarah Beckwith has argued that the commission was directly related to the insurrection in the manner of an object lesson, suggesting that "the peasants who had dared, albeit abortively, to contest their ordained position in the social hierarchy and whose revolutionary gestures were based on an identification with Christ, are once again shown a story, a story they already know very well".[10]
The reredos could have been commissioned by Norwich Cathedral to mark the visit to the city by Richard II of England and his queen Anne of Bohemia in 1383. There is no evidence to suggest who paid for the reredos. The historian David King considers that “a collective donation by those represented in the heraldry” is the most like means by which the costs of the artefact were met. [11] The reredos may have been dedicated in the presence of Richard, a possibility that is more likely if it was intended to be used for the cathedral's high altar.[12]
Description
Construction of the frame
The reredos is the cathedral's most important work of art. It is located behind the altar in St Luke’s Chapel.[13] The painted scenes are on a wooden panel made from at least four planks, over which a frame was attached. The five scenes were separated by mullions, of which only one survives. Dowels were used to join the pieces. At least one of the upper planks is missing, as the top of the reredos was sawn off to make a rectangular bench top, and 10 centimetres (3.9 in) squares of wood were removed from the reredos to allow for the construction of legs at the four corners.[14]
The original shape of the frame cannot be determined, but it was probably rectangular. The frame may have had 30 heraldic shields, as well as some of the Instruments of the Passion. [15] Only those around the sides and along the bottom of the frame survived when the reredos was converted into a bench [3]
Painted panels
The five sections of the reredos are each devoted to one aspect of Christ's final days.[10] The colours used are vivid, and include a bright red and a blueish green.[16] The paintings were never deliberately damaged, but paint has been lost from them over the centuries. The loss of the top part from three of the panels only resulted in the removal of the architectural settings.[14] The upper part of Christ has been lost in two of the panels.[3]
The first panel shows an almost totally naked Christ being whipped whilst being tied to a pillar. Jesus is looking at his persecutors with sadness rather than in pain. The Roman soldiers are made to look ugly as they grimace and dance, a sign that they are evil. A bearded authority figure that may represent Pilate is shown in this panel.The second panel shows Christ surrounded by soldiers as he is made to carry his cross.[17] The central panel depicts the crucifixion of Christ. The panel has been completely restored by Pauline Plummer (like the others), so that the reredos can be used in religious services.The panel shows Mary, mother of Jesus, being held by St John the Evangelist. A group of three men opposite to them includes a person who may be the same authority figure shown in the scourging scene. A quotation from the Bible reads vere filius dei erat iste (“This man was truly the Son of God”).[18] The fourth panel shows events that follow the Burial of Jesus. He is shown carrying a banner and stepping onto the shoulder of a sleeping soldier as he rises from his tomb. Unlike the drawing of Jesus, the tomb has no perspective.[19] The fifth panel shows the Ascension of Jesus, with the Disciples and the Virgin Mary arranged around him. Much of the figure of Jesus is lost, a result of the top of the panel being cut away when the reredos was made into a table top.[20] It is unclear how much of Jesus was originally depicted in this panel.[14]
In the reredos, Christ is shown as humbly accepting his fate from those with the power to prescribe it; a similar position, says Beckwith, to the position the peasantry found themselves in following their abortive rebellion.[10]
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Provenance
The origin of the reredos remains uncertain. Following its discovery 1847, it was considered to be of Italian or German origin, in contrast to the views of later experts, who believed the reredos to be influenced by French or Bohemian craftsmen. The panels are similar to others in a Norwich church, but experts cannot conclude from this that both artefacts were made locally. The historian David King has concluded that the origin of the reredos cannot be ascertained by the style of the panels.[21]
Notes
- ↑ Destined for a career in the church from a young age, Despenser spent much of his earlier life at the Papal curia in the service of Pope Urban V. He fought in the papal armies against the city state of Milan during the crusade against the Visconti.[6][7]
References
- ↑ "Norwich Cathedral, the Despenser Retable". Norwich360. 2022. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
- ↑ Tink 2010, p. 42.
- 1 2 3 4 5 King 1996, p. 411.
- ↑ Plummer 1959, p. 106.
- ↑ McFayden 2015, p. 7.
- 1 2 Davies 2004.
- ↑ Sumption 2009, p. 111.
- ↑ McFayden 2015, p. 9.
- ↑ King 1996, pp. 411–412.
- 1 2 3 Beckwith 1993, p. 22.
- ↑ King 1996, pp. 412–413.
- ↑ McFayden 2015, pp. 8–9.
- ↑ McFayden 2015, p. 3.
- 1 2 3 Plummer 1959, p. 108.
- ↑ McFayden 2015, p. 30.
- ↑ McFayden 2015, p. 8.
- ↑ McFayden 2015, pp. 10, 13.
- ↑ McFayden 2015, p. 18.
- ↑ McFayden 2015, p. 22.
- ↑ McFayden 2015, p. 26.
- ↑ King 1996, p. 413.
Sources
- Beckwith, Sarah (1993). Christ's Body: Identity, Culture and Society in Late Medieval Writings (PDF). London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-13476-157-9.
- Davies, R. G. (2004). "Despenser, Henry (d. 1406)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7551. Archived from the original on 2 November 2019. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- King, David. J. (1996). "The Panel Paintings and Stained Glass". In Atherton, Ian; Fernie, Eric; Harper-Bill, Christopher; Smith, Hassell (eds.). Norwich Cathedral: Church, City and Diocese, 1096–1996. London: The Hambleton Press. ISBN 978-1-85285-134-7.
- McFayden, Phillip (2015). Norwich Cathedral Despenser Retable: An Illustrated Guide to the Medieval Altarpiece in Norwich Cathedral. Medieval Media. ISBN 978-09926-3-882-5.
- Plummer, Pauline (1959). "Restoration of a Retable in Norwich Cathedral". Studies in Conservation. 4 (3): 106–115. doi:10.2307/1505071. JSTOR 1505071.
- Sumption, J. (2009). The Hundred Years' War: Divided Houses. Vol. 3. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0571240128.
- Tink, Daniel (2010). Spirit of Norwich Cathedral. Wellington: Pixz. ISBN 9780857100276. OCLC 1280737875.
Further reading
- Guthrie, T. H. (2013). Recognizing Heritage: The Politics of Multiculturalism in New Mexico. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-80324-610-2.
- May, Albert (1851). "Obervations of a Painting of the IVth century, part of the decorations of an altar discovered in Norwich Cathedral". Memoirs Illustrative of the History and Antiquities of Norfolk and the City of Norwich. Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 3: 198–206.
- Micklethwaite, J. T. (1874). Modern Parish Churches: Their Plan, Design, and Furniture. London: H. S. King. OCLC 945638114.
- Stanbury, Sarah (2015). "The Despenser Retable and 1381". The Visual Object of Desire in Late Medieval England. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 76–94. ISBN 978-15128-0-829-2.
- Hope, William Henry St John (1898). "On a painted table or reredos of the fourteenth century in the cathedral church of Norwich". Norfolk Archaeology. 13 (3): 293–314. doi:10.5284/1077532.
- Waller, John Green (1897). "Notes on a painted Tabula or reredos discovered in Norwich cathedral church in 1847". Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London. 16 (2nd series): 123–139.