Highways and Byways in Cambridge and Ely Part 5

The connection between the right-hand subjects is not obvious. Dr.

James suggests that it refers to Christ's speaking of the casting out of Satan as a result of His Pa.s.sion (John xii. 31). The smaller scale of this scene, and the nimbi given to Christ and the Apostles point to its having been the work of a special artist.

The fourth choir window:

TYPE | TYPE Cain murders Abel. | The mocking of David by s.h.i.+mei.

| ANt.i.tYPE | ANt.i.tYPE Judas betrays Christ. | The mocking of Christ.

Cain is killing Abel with a large bone. Note the ruby fires of their respective altars in the back-ground, Abel's spiring upwards in full flame, while Cain's is blown down to the earth. In the betrayal scene the face of Malchus, as he lies upon the ground with his broken lantern under him, should be observed. It is highly expressive.

The fifth window:

TYPE | TYPE Jeremiah in prison. | Noah mocked by Ham.

| ANt.i.tYPE | ANt.i.tYPE Christ before Annas. | Christ mocked by Herod.

We have now reached the last window of the northern range, that in the north-east corner of the Chapel. It shows us:

TYPE | TYPE Job scourged by Satan. | Solomon crowned by his mother.

| (_Cant._ iii. 11.) | ANt.i.tYPE | ANt.i.tYPE Christ scourged by Pilate. | Christ crowned with thorns.

In the scourging scene we may note the singularly unpleasing features and expression of the Saviour's face; which Dr. James holds to be purposely so delineated, in reference to the words of Isaiah: "He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him." We do not, indeed, find in the entire series of windows one single attempt to represent Him worthily. The conventional face, familiar throughout the ages to Christian Art, even from the first century, and probably a real recollection of Him, is consistently departed from (as is characteristic of the Renaissance period), and with it has gone every divine and exalted a.s.sociation.

Where even the genius of Michael Angelo failed, we cannot look to find the gla.s.sworkers of London succeeding.

The great east window has no central messengers, and thus contains six scenes, each occupying three lights, arranged thus:

The Nailing to the | Christ crucified | The Descent from the Cross. | (the Piercing). | Cross.

| | Ecce h.o.m.o! | The Sentence. | The Way of Sorrows.

There is little to call for special notice in this window. Structural conditions necessitate the Cross being of abnormal height. In the background of the Way of Sorrows is a vivid ruby patch, which may be meant for the Field of Blood.

Turning to the south-east window, we are confronted with an entirely exceptional development. The whole of the upper half is occupied with a single subject (the Brazen Serpent), and that in Early Victorian gla.s.s inconceivably poor and crude. The lower half is ancient and typical, the type and ant.i.type being placed side by side:

TYPE | ANt.i.tYPE Naomi bewailing her husband. | The Holy Women bewailing Christ.

(_Ruth_ i. 20.) |

The history of this marked departure from the norm is that the buildings of the Great Court were planned to abut upon the Chapel here, so as to block the lower half of the window, for which, accordingly, no gla.s.s was provided. That which is there now was originally in the upper half and was moved down in 1841, the Brazen Serpent being subst.i.tuted for it. The remaining windows on this side of the choir also underwent a sad amount of "restoration" at the same period.

The next window (the fifteenth in the entire sequence) is of the normal arrangement.

TYPE | TYPE Joseph cast into the pit. | The overthrow of Pharaoh.

| ANt.i.tYPE | ANt.i.tYPE Christ laid in the Sepulchre. | The Harrying of h.e.l.l.

The last scene is a most forcible representation of Christ's victorious "Harrying of h.e.l.l," as conceived by mediaeval imagination and referred to by Dante in his Inferno. The Conqueror of Death has forced His resistless way through the shattered gates of h.e.l.l, on which He stands, treading under His feet the gigantic leaden-coloured bulk of their demon warder. Before Him kneels Adam, at last rescued from his age-long captivity, and other Holy Souls. In the back-ground a blue devil gazes in dismay from the red mouth of h.e.l.l (represented after the usual mediaeval fas.h.i.+on, as an actual mouth, with teeth, etc.), while another, in livid green, is dancing with demoniac rage above, and yet another, white and gold, is scudding away in terror as fast as his wings will carry him.

The remaining windows of the choir on this side deal with the Resurrection. In the first of these (the third from the east) the subjects are:

TYPE | TYPE Jonah escaping from the Fish. | Tobias appearing to his mother | (who had thought him dead).

| ANt.i.tYPE | ANt.i.tYPE Christ arising from the Sepulchre. | Christ appearing to His Mother.

The Fish is represented as a long green sea-serpent with a black, cavernous mouth, out of which Jonah is stepping. In the background is a s.h.i.+p, and, beyond, Nineveh. The Sepulchre is in the frequent unscriptural shape of a table monument.

In the right-hand type, Tobias has his dog with him, and also his angel guardian Raphael. That Christ appeared to His Mother is first found in St. Ambrose, who mentions it as undoubted. She is here shown kneeling at a prayer-desk.

In the next window we find:

TYPE | TYPE Reuben finds Joseph taken away | Darius, at the Lions' den, sees from the pit. | Daniel living.

| ANt.i.tYPE | ANt.i.tYPE The Marys find Jesus taken away |Mary Magdalene, at the Sepulchre, from the Sepulchre. | sees Jesus living.

In the last scene Christ is represented with a spade, inasmuch as Mary Magdalene supposed Him to be the gardener. Her very p.r.o.nounced costume, with its astonis.h.i.+ng golden ear-covers, is probably a German fas.h.i.+on of the early sixteenth century.

The fifth window gives the story of Christ's appearance to the disciples who went to Emmaus:

TYPE | TYPE Tobias, on his journey, is joined | Habakkuk shares his meal with by the angel Raphael, in | Daniel at Babylon.

appearance a wayfaring man. | (_Bel and the Dragon_, v. 33.) (_Tobit_, v. 4.) | | ANt.i.tYPE | ANt.i.tYPE The two disciples on their journey | Christ shares the meal of are joined by Christ, in | disciples at Emmaus.

appearance a wayfaring man. |

Observe that the bread in Our Lord's hand appears to be, not broken, but cut clean as with a knife. There was a mediaeval legend to the effect that He showed His divine power by thus breaking it. Note, too, Raphael's brilliant green and crimson wings, put in to denote his angelic nature, though the story postulates their absence.

The following window (that next to the screen) deals with the story of St. Thomas (John xx.), and has been wrongly arranged: what are now the right-hand scenes should be the left so as to come first. It now stands thus:

TYPE | TYPE The Prodigal Son returns to his | Joseph meets Jacob in Egypt.

Father. | | ANt.i.tYPE | ANt.i.tYPE Thomas returns to belief in Jesus.| Jesus meets His Disciples at | Supper.

We find in the first scene here what is perhaps the most ably drawn figure in the entire series of windows, that of the Elder Brother.

Observe the utter contempt and disgust written on his face and in his whole att.i.tude. He wears a pair of most aggressively red leggings.

The window over the organ loft shows us the Ascension, and the Coming of the Holy Ghost.