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VI. The Stained Glass of the Chapel of the Vyne and the Chapel of the Holy Ghost, Basingstoke

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

H. G. Wayment
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Abstract

Among the few ensembles of stained glass which survive in this country from the early Renaissance the windows of the Chapel of the Vyne, near Sherborne St. John, Hampshire, are one of the most remarkable (pl. XL). Though much smaller in scale and extent than the glass in King's College Chapel, Cambridge, they are no less distinguished in quality, and their state of preservation is almost as good. Moreover, there are still in existence important fragments from a larger but closely related set which formerly stood in the Chapel of the Holy Ghost at Basingstoke. Both sets were evidently commissioned by Sir William, later Baron Sandys, a distinguished soldier and administrator who, without ever reaching the highest levels, served Henry VIII both at home and abroad from the beginning of the reign until his death in 1540. After campaigning in Guienne and Picardy early in the reign he was appointed Treasurer of Calais from 6th October 1517, and spent much of the next nine years there. Meanwhile he had married Margery, the niece and heiress of Sir Reginald Bray, one of Henry VII's most trusted administrators, and begun the reconstruction of the Vyne which had belonged to the Sandys family since the midfourteenth century. There had since the twelfth century been a chapel of the Virgin in the grounds, and this foundation he incorporated into the eastern end of the house itself. Sir William's chapel measures 35 ft. in length, 19 in width, and 25 in height (10·67 × 5·79 × 7·62 m.). The apsidal east end ie three-sided, and in the east wall and the two canted walls are three windows, each consisting of three transomed lights forming an upper and lower register. The lower lights represent donors at prayer supported by their patron saints: King Henry VIII can be recognised in the east window with St. Henry the Emperor; in the north-east Catherine of Aragon with St. Catherine of Alexandria; and in the south-east the king's sister, Margaret, Queen of Scots, with St. Margaret issuing from the dragon. In the upper register three Passion scenes proceed from south to north: in the south-east Christ carries his cross from right to left, assisted by Simon of Cyrene, while St. Veronica, the Virgin Mary and her attendant women move towards him from the left; in the east is a narrative Crucifixion animated by a large number of figures; and in the north-east the resurrected Christ scatters the astonished soldiers to either side.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 107 , 1982 , pp. 141 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1982

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References

Notes

1 Chute, C. W., A History of the Vyne in Hampshire (Winchester, 1888), pp. 34–49.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., pp. 17–18, 20.

3 Below, p. 145.

4 Baigent, F. J. and Millard, J. E., A History of … Basingstoke (Basingstoke, 1889), pp. 110–11, diagram opp. p. 156.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., p. 115.

6 Ibid., pp. 119–20.

7 Rushforth, G. McN., ‘The painted windows in the Chapel of the Vyne in Hampshire’, Walpole Society, XV (1936–1937), 13.Google Scholar

8 Op. cit. in n. 4, p. 111 and diagram opp. p. 156.

9 Cf. the engraving ibid., p. 110.

10 Ibid., loc. cit. and p. 111.

11 Ibid., p. 157; Travels of Cosmo the Third, Grand Duke of Tuscany (London, 1821), pl. opp. p. 157. Op. cit. in n. 4, p 114.Google Scholar

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid., pp. 114, 678.

14 Ibid., p. 693 (Lord Sandys' surcoat); Blacking, W. H. Randoll, ‘Notes on fragments of painted glass in St. Michael's Church, Basingstoke’, Journal of the British Society of Master Glass Painters, X, i (1947–1948), 34–5.Google Scholar

15 Westlake, N. H. J., A History of Design in Painted Glass, IV (London, 1894), p. 52.Google Scholar

16 Op. cit. in n. 4, pp. 91–2; probably the widow of Sir George Mill, twelfth Baronet.

17 Op. cit. in n. 14.

18 Op. cit. in n. 7, pl. v.

19 Op. cit. in n. 15, pls. Ia, IVa, V, VIb, XIId, XIIIa, b, XIVb, XXXVII, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XL, XLI, a, b, c.

20 Ibid., pl. XXXVII.

21 Ibid., pl. XL.

22 Ibid., pl. XXXIX (St. Peter); St. John and possibly the head of Christ at Woolbeding; angel with cup and cross at St. Michael's, Basingstoke.

23 Fragments at Woolbeding.

24 Op. cit. in n. 15 speaks of an Entombment, and illustrates a ‘Mater Dolorosa’ which he says was once in the east window of the Trinity Chapel (pl. 1, see n. 19); but there are three large fragments at Woolbeding which show that the scene was a Lamentation. Westlake (p. 52) mistook the figure of Nicodemus with hammer and pincers beside him for part of a Crucifixion.

25 Dismembered but almost complete at Woolbeding.

26 V.C.H. Hampshire, iv, p. 137 records one in the east window of the north aisle at St. Michael's, Basingstoke in 1911; pl. v in Rushforth (n. 7) is not clear.

27 Op. cit. in n. 15, p. 50. He probably refers to the figure of a soldier in armour which was in the east window of the north aisle at St. Michael's; the head and shoulder of this figure are at Woolbeding, and form part of a group which probably belongs to the Arrest of Christ. It resembles (in reverse) the figure of a soldier jostling and shoving Christ with his foot which appears in the Carrying of the Cross on the back of the left shutter of Van Orley's Furnes Altarpiece of 1517–20 (Friedländer, M. J., Early Netherlandish Painting, VIII (Leyden, 1972), no. 99, pl. 98); but this figure may well have been used in a different context.Google Scholar

28 Two winged putti singing from a musical score and parts of two shepherds (one with bagpipes) are in the south chancel chapel at St. Michael's, and the Christ-child on a swathe of straw is in the southern aisle of the nave. Westlake (n. 15), p. 49, records that this scene was at the Vyne in 1894.

29 Westlake ibid., p. 50: a winged angel flying to the right at Woolbeding, and in the nave window at St Michael's a female figure in blue above a landscape and buildings seen from above; a nimbed head nearby may belong to the same figure. Blacking (n. 14) says that the pieces at St. Michael's were brought from the Vyne after the war of 1939–45.

30 e.g. in s.II,2c, on the R just below the canopy.

31 Lafond, J., Trots études sur la technique du vitrail (Rouen, 1943), PP. 100–3.Google Scholar

32 e.g. the head referred to in n. 27.

33 Op. cit. in n. 4, p. 114.

34 Op. cit. in n. 1, pp. 80, 82–3; op. cit. in n. 7, p. 9.

35 Op. cit. in n. 7, p. 10.

36 In a personal letter to the author dated 16th March 1978.

37 But see n. 27; it is arguable that the figure referred to must have come from a second Carrying of the Cross, but it is difficult to dissociate the head of the figure from the fragments of the Arrest of Christ in which it is embedded. The type appears in an Arrest of Christ of 1499 by Veit Stoss (St. Sebald, Nuremberg, Volckamer Relief: Pinder, W., Deutsche Kunst der Dürerzeit (Frankfurt, 1957), pl. 161).Google Scholar

38 See n. 27 above on Westlake's suggestion that there was a Mocking of Christ, and n. 37 above.

39 Two canopies with four-centred heads were amongst the fragments preserved until 1941 in the east window of the north aisle at St. Michael's, and were engraved by Westlake (n. 15), pls. V and XXXVIII. According to the theory here put forward, they must have stood in two of the nine lights of the apse in the Trinity Chapel.

40 In the reconstruction opposite of the iconographical scheme the scenes of which no trace can be found, and are therefore purely conjectural, are set within brackets.

41 Owing to the intended abutment of a range of lodgings on the south side only eleven and a half windows were glazed in Henry VIII's reign, as opposed to twelve on the north.

42 P. Heylyn, Cyprianus Anglicanus (London, 1668), pp. 14–15.

43 Société des Amis des Arts du Département de l'Eure, Vitraux du choeur de la cathédrale d'Évreux (Evreux, 1893), pls. viii–ix.Google Scholar

44 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII I, ii, 3457; the sketch may have been made at Calais in the summer of 1513, or in England after the king's return.

45 Trizna, J., Michael Sittow, Corpus des Primitifs Flamands (Brussels, 1976), pp. 32–3Google Scholar, 35 and pl. ix; Trizna argues for the authenticity of the portrait, against Weinberger, M. (‘Notes on Maître Michiel’, Burlington Magazine, XL (1948), 248–9)Google Scholar and Strong, R., Tudor and Jacobean Portraits, I (London, 1969), p. 40. The line of the headdress is realistic in the painting, but as copied in the glass is ill-fitting and strained.Google Scholar

46 Op. cit. in n. 7, pp. 3 and 11–12.

47 Catherine, of course, bore England on the dexter side, impaling Leon and Castile.

48 Op. cit. in n. 7, p. 7; cf. op. cit. in n. 15, p. 53.

49 L & P Henry VIII II, ii, p. 1472.

50 Op. cit. in n. 1, p. 20.

51 Op. cit. in n. 7, p. 4.

52 Ibid., pp. 15–19.

53 Rushforth, G. McN., ‘The origin of the windows in the Chapel of the Vyne in Hampshire’, Walpole Society, XXV (1936–1937), 168–9. The suggestion came from N. Beets, many of whose numerous ascriptions to Vellert have been rejected by other scholars.Google Scholar

54 Friedländer, op. cit. in n. 27, viii, pp. 65–8, no. 85, pls. 78–81.

55 The fluted porphyry columns in n. II, 1a and 1c: Dussler, L., Raphael (London, 1971), p. 102 and fig. 175.Google Scholar

56 Ibid., pp. 79–80 and fig. 135.

57 The general design should be compared with a Carrying of the Cross reproduced by Baldass, L., ‘Die Entwicklung des Bernart van Orley’, Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorische Sammlungen in Wien, n.s. XIII (1944), fig. 155.Google Scholar

58 Windows 6.4 and 9.2: Wayment, H. G., The Windows of King's College Chapel, Cambridge (London, 1972), pp. 62–4, 70 and pls. 71 and 83.Google Scholar

59 Op. cit. in n. 27, no. 112, pl. 105.

60 Marlier, G., La Renaissance flamande, Pierre Coeck d'Alost (Brussels, 1966), p. 188, fig. 131.Google Scholar

61 Op. cit. in n. 57, fig. 127.

62 Op. cit. in n. 55, p. 102 and pl. 179; cf. the two disciples hauling in the net in The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, ibid., pl. 101 and pls. 171–2.

63 Ibid., p. 102 and pls. 177–8, p. 103 and pls. 183–4.

64 Op. cit. in n. 27, p. 68, no. 140, pl. 119.

65 Op. cit. in n. 55, p. 48, fig. 101.

66 Friedländer, M. J., ‘Bernaert van Orley: Orleys Tätigkeit von 1526 bis 1540’, Jahrbuch der Kön. Preuszischen Kunstsammlungen, XXX (1909), figs. 41 and 43. For the figure of Christ cf. the Carrying of the Cross (c. 1520) illustrated in Baldass (n. 57), p. 181, fig. 155.Google Scholar

67 Op. cit. in n. 55, p. 102 and pl. 180.

68 Op. cit. in n. 60, pp. 316–7, figs. 253–4.

69 Cf. the guildsman kneeling before St. Thomas on the outside of the left shutter of the Altarpiece of the Legends of SS. Thomas and Matthew: Friedländer (n. 54), no. 82, pl. 71. An even more striking parallel is to be found in Arnold of Nijmegen's Tree of Jesse in St. Goddard's, Rouen: Aubert, M., Le Vitrail français (Paris, 1958), fig. 163.Google Scholar

70 Popham, A. E., Catalogue of Drawings by Dutch and Flemish Artists in the British Museum, v (London, 1932), pp. 34–5; op. cit. in n. 27, pl. 141A.Google Scholar

71 Op. cit. in n. 54.

72 Op. cit. in n. 60, pp. 353–4, fig. 294.

73 Ibid., pp. 318–19, fig. 255.

74 Ibid., pp. 177–8, fig. 119.

75 Op. cit. in n. 54.

76 Op. cit. in. n. 70, pp. 22–3, P. Koecke, nos. 3–7. Marlier (n. 60), p. 342, records the difference of opinion among scholars: K. Steinbart and Otto Wittman Jr. agree with Popham in giving the series to Coeck, wh le Marlier, following L. Baldass, W. Krönig and M. J. Friedländer, awards them to Van Orley; but both Friedländer and Marlier suggest some sort of collaboration between the two artists.

77 Santa Barbara, California, private collection.

78 Op. cit. in n. 70, p. 22, P. Koecke, no. 4, pl. VI

79 Op. cit. in n. 60 is inconsistent here: in one passage (p. 365) Marlier insists that these drawings are by Van Orley, while in another (pp. 342–4) he finds in them elements of Coeck's style, and implies that they may have been produced by the two artists in collaboration; cf. Friedländer, , Early Netherlandish Painting, xii (Leyden, 1975), p. 35.Google Scholar

80 Op. cit. in n. 66.

81 Op. cit. in n. 60, pp. 55–74 and esp. fig. 14.

82 Helbig, J., De Glasschilderkunst in België (Antwerp, 1943), figs. 114–16.Google Scholar

83 79×58 cm.

84 87×63 cm.

85 87×60 cm.

86 Op. cit. in n. 64.

87 Op. cit. in n. 70 above.

88 Op. cit. in n. 78 above.

89 Op. cit. in n. 60, pp. 88–90, fig. 27.

90 Op. cit. in n. 29. The outlines approximate to those of the Virgin's head in the Haneton Annunciation (c. 1521, Friedländer (n. 54), pp. 70–71, no. 86, pl. 82) but there are notable Coeckian traits, such as the eyelids, the hair waving from the parting and the corners of the mouth.

91 Mirande, A. F. and Overdiep, G. S., Het Schilder-boek van Corel van Mander (Amsterdam, 1943), pp. 175–6.Google Scholar

92 Op. cit. in n. 27, p. 70.

93 Op. cit. in n. 60, pp. 40–1.

94 Rombouts, P. and van Lerius, T., Liggeren et autres archives historiques de la gilde anversoise de Saint-Luc (Antwerp, 1872), i, p. 108.Google Scholar

95 Op. cit. in n. 56.

96 e.g. in the Christ on the Cross (I, 2b), the St. Henry (I, 1a), and the Simon of Cyrene (s.II,2c).

97 Op. cit. in n. 27, no. 110, pl. 104; Friedländer dates this c. 1530, but the crowding of figures in the foreground and the confusion of planes recalls the Haneton Altarpiece, which he dates c. 1522, and the bunched-up cheeks recall figures on the shutters of the Job Altarpiece (1521).

98 Wayment, H. G., ‘A rediscovered Master: Adrian van den Houte (c. 1459–1521) and the Malines/Brussels School, III: Adrian's development and his relation with Bernard van Orley’, Oud Holland, lxxxvi (1969), 266–7.Google Scholar

99 Ibid., fig. 10; op. cit. in n. 27, no. 92, pl. 91.

100 The truncated body of St. John resembles that of the Amalekite in The Judgement of David on the Amalekite at Fairford (s.X, 1d) where a capital A on the executioner's sword-blade is to be interpreted as the signature of the Master A.M. The musician repeats exactly the stance of one of the Persecutors in the north clerestory windows (n.II, 1c, probably Nero) which is also attributable to A.M.

101 See n. 97.

102 H. Koegler, ‘Einiges über David Joris als Künstler’, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel, Jahrsberichte 1928–30, n.f. xxv–xxvii, 157 sqq.; Valentiner, W. R., ‘A painting by Jan van Scorel and a drawing by David Joris’, Bulletin of Detroit Institute of Arts, xiv (Oct. 1934), 6Google Scholar; op. cit. in n. 53; Harrison, K., The Windows of King's College Chapel, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1952), p. 70Google Scholar; id. in Wayment, H. G.The Windows of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, CVMA, Suppl. Vol. I (London, 1972), p. 10.Google Scholar

103 G. Arnold, Unparteyische Kirchen und Ketzer Historie (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1699), iv, p. 399.

104 The passage reads as follows in the Frankfurt edition of 1715, II 672: Von dar fuhren sie mit ihm sampt seiner gantzen Familie über nach Londen, und er brachte sie von dar 55 meilen über Londen ins land bey Lasing und Basingstock, das hauss hab ich mir vergessen, also dass von zehen nicht einer war, der da blieb und schnitte.* Denn Gott liess ihn in einen streit gerathen, deswegen er mit seinen gesellen von dar heimlich weggieng, hatten aber noch ein weniges zu verzehren, was sie verdienet hatten mit einem kleide und meinten ihren herrn und meister Millord Eschans zu London zu finden in Engelland weil der Käyser damals in Engelland kam. Aber er kam selbst nicht, sondern blieb zu Calis, darum sie wegen des unfreundlichen wetters da blieben, und viel geld verdienten, und meynten wunderliche dinge durch ihren grossen verdienst zu thun. Aber Gott grieff den David bald an, dass er so starck aus der nasen blutete, dass er vor todt gehalten wurde und unmüglich zu leben schiene. In dieser kranckheit nun verzehrete er viel, und muste auff zurathen von dannen oder hätte sterben müssen, weil er die lands art oder lufft nicht vertragen konte. Deswegen zog er da weg, und kam in kurzer zeit wieder nach Antwerpen Anno 1524, von dar nach Delff und heyrathete.

* Rushforth (n. 53), 168 n. misquotes as ‘schnute’, which is meaningless.

105 Joris (assuming with Koegler that the fragment is autobiographical) has just explained that he was capable of earning 12l. (a year) and more, the equivalent of 9d. or 10d. a day. Sandys' agent (perhaps his wife) evidently rated him lower than this.

106 There was never any proposal that Charles should go to London during his visit of May 1520, but in 1522 it was always intended that he should do so, after embarking at Calais.

107 Though he went to England soon after 17th July and returned to Calais on 16th August with a supply of money.

108 See n. 102.

108 L. & P. Henry VIII III ii 2145, 14, 20th and 26th March; a grant was made on 10th March to John Cheyney, ‘man-at-arms in the retinue of the Treasurer of Calais’, and since those to Sandys himself come later, it is possible that he was at the Vyne about this date.

110 Ibid. 2128: B.M. MS. Galba B VI 141.

111 Ibid. 2127: B.M. MS. Galba B VII 263 f 262.

112 Ibid. 2200.

113 Ibid. 2222.

114 E. van den Hoof, Historie van Enkhuizen (1666): ‘In den jaere 1522 syn er noch eenige glasen in der Noorderkap (der Westerkerk) geset … gemaekt door David Joris, glass-schrijver of schilder van Delft’. Koegler, op. cit. in n. 102, p. 169, makes out that this window must have dated from the end of 1522, and that Joris cannot have stayed long in England, but the text quoted by Arnold gives quite a different impression.

115 The sum indeed may not have been so small. Koegler underlines Joris’ self-confessed weakness for fashionable clothes. He later passed himself off as an aristocrat and after a turbulent life settled peaceably in Basle for his last twelve years (1544–56) as Johan von Bruck. Joris evidently regarded London as a centre of fashion, which indeed under the young Henry it undoubtedly was.

116 Above, p. 141.

117 Above, p. 147.

118 See n. 104.

119 Councer, C. R., ‘Painted glass at Cranbrook and Lullingstone’, Arch. Cantiana, lxxxvi (1971), 44–5. The two figures resemble each other not only in the features and the set of the head, but in the structure and posture of the fingers, in the drapery folds and in the ruched cuffs. The St. Anne should be compared with the figure of the same saint in the Kassel Altarpiece of the Standing Saints attributed to Van Orley (op. cit. in n. 27, no. 83, pl. 74).Google Scholar

120 Op. cit. in n. 15, pl. Ia.

121 Above, p. 144 and n. 24.

122 Op. cit. in n. 7, pp. 15–18.

123 Op. cit. in n. 82, p. 149, no. 1264, figs. 90–91: Helbig gives the date as 1525

124 Ibid., no. 1266, fig. 92.

125 Ibid., no. 1267, fig. 94.

126 Ibid., no. 1265, figs. 95–6.

127 Op. cit. in n. 82, no. 1594; ibid., ii (Antwerp, 1951), figs. 138–9.

128 Op. cit. in n. 27, p. 89, pl. 136.

129 Compare the figure of the woman beside the Virgin with that of St. Catherine in the Hamburg Holy Family attributed to Gossart (op. cit. in n. 27, suppl. 155, pl. 138).

130 Helbig, J. and Van den Bemden, Y., Les Vitraux de la première moitié du XVIe siècle conservés en Belgique: Brabant et Limbourg, CVMA Belgique III (Ghent, 1974), pp. 13–48Google Scholar, figs. 2, 6 and 24–7. 131 Ibid., pp. 22–3, figs 3, 11 and 22–3.

132 Ibid., pp. 138–47, fig. 118.

133 Op. cit. in n. 102, pp. 165–6, 185, 199–201, cf. pl. 18.

134 Ibid., pp. 176–7, 181, 185–7, 189.

135 Ibid., pp. 187–91, 200–1.

136 Ibid., p. 168.

137 Ibid., pp. 181–6, pl. 12. There are striking similarities here with the woodcut of the Divine Man (signed with the monogram DJ) in Joris' Wunderbuch of 1542: ibid., pp. 174–5 and pl. ad fin.

138 Ibid., p. 168.