Charlemagne and Rome: Alcuin and the Epitaph of Pope Hadrian I by Joanna Story;

Author:Joanna Story; [Story, Joanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780192575050
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
Published: 2023-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

The ornamental border

One of the most striking features of the epitaph is the border that frames the text (Figures 5.2 and 5.3). It was mentioned in 1590 in de Winghe’s description of the inscription, where he said that it was cincto opere pampinaceo (‘girded around by vine tendrils’).5 It is a simple, slim rinceau that springs from the centre of the lower border, and each scroll contains either a bunch of grapes or a vine leaf.6 In every corner is a five-lobed serrated leaf, and pairs of small leaves grow from the main stem; a longer drop-leaf springs from the node where the main stem branches off for each scroll. Each leaf and grape bunch are different; some are set straight, but others point up or down, left or right, and the sequence is the same in both vertical borders. Only in one place does the pattern break down: in the top border, the serrated leaf in the top left-hand corner should have been followed by a bunch of grapes (as on the other corners), but is instead followed by a leaf, forcing an interruption further along the upper border, where two leaf scrolls occur in sequence. The regularity of the scroll implies that it was mapped out with a compass, but the variability of leaf/grape shapes implies that the motifs at the centre of each scroll were sketched and cut by eye rather than by a fixed template or stencil. It fits well with Pawelec’s characterisation of early Carolingian ornamentation as ‘lively, spontaneous and improvisatory’.7 The vine scroll is itself bounded by straight lines, and the whole border is 7cm wide between these parallel lines. As noted, the vine-scroll border shows many traces of a yellow pigment, probably orpiment, as well as the white lead that was also painted into the letters.

Figure 5.2 Detail of Hadrian’s epitaph showing the ornamental border with golden coloured pigment overlain by white lead in and around the vine scroll. Photo: Author.

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