Flemish Brasses to Civilians in England

The earliest brasses of the Tournai school were executed for royalty and for high ranking and local ecclesiastics. With the expansion of overseas trade, particularly by the Hanse, during the fourteenth century the increasingly wealthy merchant class became the principal customers of these Flemish workshops. Their products were in wide demand throughout western and northern Europe. Many of these brasses are now lost and gone but records remain of considerable numbers (Cameron 1970). It is fortunate that we still have in England the five good examples described in this and the previous paper (Cameron 1979). The three here described offer a good insight into the main products of the school, all similar in concept yet varying widely in detail and of significantly different date, providing a comparative study that could not be readily matched elsewhere in Europe.The first of the three, to Alan Fleming, though revolutionary in some of its detail, is representative of the large number of civilian brasses from these workshops around the middle of the fourteenth century. The eye is always first attracted to a face and the head of Alan Fleming is almost identical not only with those at King's Lynn described earlier but with the several splendid merchants of the Hanse that are (or were) in the Baltic trading towns (Lübeck, Stralsund, and Toruń).The much later Thornton brass at Newcastle matches these brasses in its magnificence and comprehensive presentation of a memorial with all the religious iconography thought to be desirable by earlier generations. It is, however, quite obviously updated in style and costume to provide the one great work of the school in the fifteenth century to a rich merchant. It is, in this sense, unique and is a great and perhaps insufficiently recognized treasure of our heritage.The third brass, intermediate in date, is a curiosity, not least because so little is known of Thomas de Topclyff. It is significantly smaller than the other brasses of the series and is correspondingly simpler in design and context. It is the only brass from the workshop which is known to be made from scrap-metal. It has all the imprint of a work of the school, in particular the quatrefoil-dot-cinquefoil pattern which, more than any other detail, is a certain pointer to this particular workshop.Dating of these brasses entirely by style is uncertain and can be misleading. Their reputation was so high that orders were placed for brasses to be made to be like, and as well made as, an earlier named example that must have been admired. Two documented examples of this are dated as far apart as 1301 and c. 1420. The latter was an order from an Archbishop of Gniezno in Poland, through Bruges, for a brass similar to one made some fifty or so years earlier for one of his predecessors and lying in the Cathedral. Entirely new designs from the school were available in the fifteenth century: a civilian, Peter Zatrylla, whose brass is now in the Louvre and which is post 1400 in date, has no canopy or religious symbolism other than the two angels that support the cushion behind his head but still retains the school pattern. The one brass of the three here described about which the date of engraving is established is that of Roger Thornton; it was executed between 1420 and 1430. One must conclude that his instructions were based on something he had not only heard about but had seen.Commemoration by these Flemish brasses served a twofold purpose. They provided what was hoped to be a permanent reminder to others not only of the former existence of those depicted but also of their affluence. More immediately they provided visual evidence of their hoped-for salvation and the service held to ensure this. The canopy around the main figures served as a pictorial reminder of the funeral service, invoking all the help of the prophets and apostles to plead for the translation of the soul to heaven. Fleming's brass included the creed in the inscription. Angels announced the soul's arrival with music and with incense. They frequently lighted the way with tapers. At Newcastle one is actually sprinkling holy water on the body.The help of the apostles at this critical time was recognized by showing them in the niches of the side shafts of the canopy. This practice was prevalent on early monuments in France and was the normal practice of the Tournai engravers. There are only three exceptions to this on known brasses of the school and these are in England. On the Fleming brass at Newark and, a few years later, on the Braunche brass at King's Lynn the niches are filled with men and women in fashionable dress of the day. Their clothes are not like those of the weepers that are to be found on the side of tombs of a rather later date. They must be mourners but friends, relations, and well-wishers. This was a practice not unknown in England. The English brass to Sir Hugh Hastings, at Elsing in Norfolk, has in the side shafts of the canopy small figures of Edward III and other well-known leading men of the time, all of whom were Sir Hugh's associates at the siege of Calais. A closer comparison would be with the weepers on the tombs in Westminster Abbey. On the tomb of Aymer de Valence, who died in 1324, the figures in niches are alternately men and women, variously attired; they are thought to be his relations, some being identified by coats of arms above. The costumes of Edward III's children in niches on his tomb are even more like those in the side shafts at Newark.On the Topcliffe brass the side shafts are occupied by angel musicians; no other example of this is known on the recorded brasses of this school.The civilian brasses executed by the engravers of Tournai represent a major part of their creations. Those to be found in England and described in these two papers, are fully representative of the whole series, from the earliest now remaining, Adam de Walsokne, 1349, to the last, Roger Thornton, 1429/30. On these brasses can be found the essential characteristics and continuity of design that was, and looked, costly, elaborate, and attractive, not least in its complete imagery for the salvation of the soul. At the same time the range and variations of detail was extraordinary. Every brass, even if ordered to be like another, had differences of detail that provided individuality and makes their study so fascinating.A parallel range of brasses to priests shows equal mastery and ingenuity. The three left in England are described elsewhere (Cameron 1980)

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