The tympanum with the depiction of the "Celestial Journey of Alexander the Great"
English: Romanesque tympanum of the St Peter's Church, in Charney Bassett, Oxfordshire (previously Berkshire), depicting the so called Celestial Journey of Alexander the Great". Image taken from plate 16b in Arthur H. Collins' Symbolism of animals and birds represented in English architecture (London: Sir I. Pitman & sons, Ltd., 1913), whose original description, at page 78 (summarized at page 232 as depicting the prophet "Daniel with griffin-like lions") was as follows: SYMBOLISM OF ANIMALS the bear as a type of Christ, when He descended into hell, and delivered the souls out ofthe jaws of Satan. The most curious tympanum of Charney Basset in Berks is probably a very conventional example of Daniel in the lions den.If this is so, the lions are carved in an unusual manner, being more like griffins than lions.The fact that these beasts are represented with wings does not add any difficulty to the view that they are lions. Daniel in the lions den is also carved ona tympanum at Shalfleet, Isle of Wight, and is commonly found in quite early work on the Continent. M. de Caumont imagined that the man between two monsters is expressive of the power of the Faith of Christ to conquer what is evil. Identifier: symbolismofanim00coll (find matches) Title: Symbolism of animals and birds represented in English architecture Year: 1913 (1910s) Authors: Collins, Arthur H Subjects: Christian art and symbolism Animals in art Church architecture Church decoration and ornament Publisher: London : Sir I. Pitman & sons,ltd. Contributing Library: PIMS - University of Toronto Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: 16a Text Appearing After Image: 166 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE Rev. xiv. 1, xxii. 1). These four rivers wereheld to be symbolic of the four evangelists.In other early examples the Lamb is placedin the centre, with the Apostles ranged assheep on either side. The Lamb with the cross is the earliestsymbolic representation of the Crucifixion.All early Christians disliked to represent theactual scene of Our Lords Passion, partlyout of fear of ridicule, partly because theyshrank from representing the slavish way inwhich Our Lord was killed, but chieflybecause of that laudable reserve, which is acharacteristic of all early Christian art. As time went on, however, reserve gra-dually gave place to realism. The Lamb cameto be represented on the Cross, as at Wirks-worth, Derbyshire, from which it was a shortstep, determined by a council held at Con-stantinople in 683, to place the actual figureof Our Lord upon the Cross. One of the veryearliest extant examples of Christ Himselfon the Cross is carved on an ivory casket ofthe f Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.