Listen, O Isles, unto me: Studies in Medieval Word and Image in honour of Jennifer O'Reilly

The Road to Hell: The Art of Damnation in Anglo-Saxon Sculpture

230 The Road to Hell: The Art of Damnation in Anglo-Saxon Sculpture JANE HAWKES Introduction The impact of Jennifer O’Reilly’s work on the study of Insular art is genuinely incalculable. Without it, and her unstinting encouragement of others working in the field, it is unlikely that at least two generations of scholars, as well as those still to emerge, would have set out on their various, but very specifically iconographic, voyages of exploration and discovery; would have been able to achieve their own objectives; or would have had any impact on their own particular areas of academic study. This is largely due to the way Jennifer’s work manages to assimilate the intellectual, theological and historical with the visual in a manner entirely integral to the early medieval world she has brought to life, but one so far removed from modern ‘ways of seeing’.1 For those exploring the arts of the Insular world, specifically the sculpture and its iconographic significances, it is entirely appropriate that her early studies involved the complex iconographies of trees and plants in Eden;2 for here she cut a swathe through the undergrowth to reveal a methodological pathway for such studies, and illuminated the intellectual riches to be harvested in their pursuit. This said, it might seem paradoxical to offer in tribute a study on the iconographies of hell and damnation in early medieval sculpture. In defence, it is submitted that such a study has the potential to elucidate, within the specific cultural and historical contexts of early Christian Anglo-Saxon England, the ways in which the road to hell had to be identified in hope of attaining eternal life. One of the prevailing themes of Jennifer’s work has been the intricate and varied ways in which eternal salvation was articulated, textually and visually, in the medieval and, particularly, Insular world in response to diverse intellectual and historical situations. Plate 1. Arch with cross. Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana B 62, fol. 84v. Plate 2. Horseshoe arch with cross. Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana B 62, fol. 122v. Plate 3. Incipit. Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana B 62, fol. 1r. Plate 4. Initial O. Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana B 62, fol. 9r. Plate 5. The gemmarium in Cracow Chapter Library, MS 140, fol. 2v. Plate 6. The gemmarium in Cracow Chapter Library, MS 140, fol. 3r. Plate 8. The list of the abbots from Iona in the Liber confraternitatum ecclesiae S. Petri in Salzburg. Salzburg, Archiv der Erzabtei St Peter, MS A 1, fol. 20. Left, top: Plate 7. The symbols of the evangelists. Cracow Chapter Library, MS 140, fol. 100v. Left, bottom: Plate 9. St Thomas Becket with the apostles Peter and Paul. Tomb panel. Strade Abbey, Co. Mayo. Plate 10. St Thomas Becket with Christ. Plunket tomb-chest. Rathmore, Co. Meath. Plate 11. Repton Stone. From St Wystan, Repton, Derbyshire, now Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby. Face A: armed rider. Eighth or ninth century. Plate 12. Bewcastle shaft. St Cuthbert, Bewcastle, Cumbria. Lower west face: male figure with bird of prey. First half of the eighth century. Plate 13. Wheel-cross. St Canna, Llangan, Glamorgan. West face, above: Crucifixion with Stephaton and Longinus; below: male figure with horse(?) and horn. Late ninth to early tenth century. Plate 14. Shaft fragment, St Mary and St Hardulf, Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire. Above: scene of horn presentation; below: Adam and Eve. Ninth century. Plate 15. Last Judgement ivory. Early ninth century. Victoria and Albert Museum. Plate 16. Cross-shaft, Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leiceister, ninth century: left, Devil; right, Rider. Plate 17. Cross-shaft. Early ninth century. From St Wystan, Repton, Derbyshire, now Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby: left, Hell Mouth; centre, Rider; right, Crucifixion. Left: Plate 18. Damned in Hell. Rothbury, Northumberland. Late eighth century. Right: Plate 19. Christ in Majesty. The Ruthwell Cross. Plate 21. The visitation of Mary and Elizabeth. The Ruthwell Cross. Plate 20. Mary Magdalene at Psalm 114, Corbie Psalter. Amiens, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 18, fol. 97r. Plate 22. The visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, Psalm 122, Corbie Psalter. Amiens, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 18, fol. 107v. Plate 23. Presentation in the Temple, Corbie Psalter. Amiens, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 18, fol. 137r. Plate 24. Magnificat initial, Corbie Psalter. Amiens, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 18, fol. 136v. Plate 25. Stuttgart Psalter, Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Biblia...