Immured in the Priory Church of St Mary and St Hardulph at Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire, is a stone relief with a half-length representation of the Virgin Mary (Fig. 21.1). It is part of the largest group of sculpted reliefs from the early medieval kingdom of Mercia. She is veiled and has no nimbus; she imparts a blessing to the beholder with a disproportionately enlarged right hand, which also points to a book she reverently holds in her veiled left hand. She is framed by an arch supported by colonnettes and plain capitals. It has been suggested that her “hieratic frontality”, staring gaze, and the drapery style may be derived from seventh-century Byzantine icons. Yet, the iconography of this relief, let alone the emphasis on the hand pointing to the book, is not found in Byzantine art and remains highly unusual to the point that not all scholars who have dealt with it believe it to be a representation of the Virgin. In fact, in the conventional Byzantine half-length iconography of the Virgin known as Hodegetria, ‘The One who shows the Way’, she holds the Christ Child in one arm while pointing to him with the other, indicating the Saviour, the way to Salvation. At Breedon a book takes the place of the Child. That being the case, is the relief in Breedon to be seen as a variation of the Hodegetria, or a Mercian rendition of an earlier, lost model, or an invention of early medieval England? What might its historical context suggest?
“The Virgin with the Book at Breedon-on-the-Hill (Leicestershire)”
Francesca Dell'Acqua
2025
Abstract
Immured in the Priory Church of St Mary and St Hardulph at Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire, is a stone relief with a half-length representation of the Virgin Mary (Fig. 21.1). It is part of the largest group of sculpted reliefs from the early medieval kingdom of Mercia. She is veiled and has no nimbus; she imparts a blessing to the beholder with a disproportionately enlarged right hand, which also points to a book she reverently holds in her veiled left hand. She is framed by an arch supported by colonnettes and plain capitals. It has been suggested that her “hieratic frontality”, staring gaze, and the drapery style may be derived from seventh-century Byzantine icons. Yet, the iconography of this relief, let alone the emphasis on the hand pointing to the book, is not found in Byzantine art and remains highly unusual to the point that not all scholars who have dealt with it believe it to be a representation of the Virgin. In fact, in the conventional Byzantine half-length iconography of the Virgin known as Hodegetria, ‘The One who shows the Way’, she holds the Christ Child in one arm while pointing to him with the other, indicating the Saviour, the way to Salvation. At Breedon a book takes the place of the Child. That being the case, is the relief in Breedon to be seen as a variation of the Hodegetria, or a Mercian rendition of an earlier, lost model, or an invention of early medieval England? What might its historical context suggest?I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
