Germanic Animal Motifs in Romanesque Sculpture
George Zarnecki
The chalice-shaped font in St. Cassian's church at Chaddesley Corbett, Worcestershire, serves as the departure point for a discussion of sources certain unusual features Romanesque sculptural ornamentation. On this font, work Herefordshire School from second quarter twelfth century, heads monsters have Italian counterparts, but intertwining tails and bands that loop round these tails, thereby strangling beasts, are ancient Germanic origin. Saxon settlement brought motif to England where it flourished, later influencing such continental works Tassilo Chalice, made abbey Kremsmunster. Another, even more savage is penetration forms: animals pierced by their own tongues, legs, or interlacing ornament common Anglo-Saxon Scandinavian art period.
Artibus et Historiae