Purple altar frontal (North Stoke Church, Oxon.)
At the moment the church’s liturgical colour is green but this will change to purple on Ash Wednesday and it will remain purple throughout Lent as the church prepares for Easter. Purple is also the colour for Advent, leading up to Christmas, another period of preparation.
Purple altar frontal : detail (North Stoke Church, Oxon.)
North Stoke’s purple frontal of fine silk brocade is sober yet dramatic. The decorative energy is concentrated centrally where 2 intertwined silken circlets of thorns surround the gold thread Christogram ihs*. The symbolism here clearly refers to the crucifixion, when soldiers twisted together a rough crown and placed it on Christ’s head, mocking him as King of the Jews.
Purple altar frontal: symbols of the crucifixion, pillar and ropes (North Stoke Church, Oxon.)
Purple altar frontal: symbols of the crucifixion, sword & whip (North Stoke Church, Oxon.)
Purple altar frontal: symbols of the crucifixion, Christ’s garment & dice (North Stoke Church, Oxon.)
Purple altar frontal: symbols of the crucifixion, ladder & spear
(North Stoke Church, Oxon.)
Purple altar frontal: symbols of the crucifixion, hammer & pincers (North Stoke Church, Oxon.)
Further symbols of the crucifixion appear in the embroidered vignettes along the top of the frontal. The pillar to which Christ was tied is shown with the knotted ropes and a whip with flails with which he was scourged. Sword and a spear together symbolise both general aggression and specifically the piercing of Christ’s side. In the middle is the seamless garment taken from Christ when the soldiers were dividing up his clothing and alongside this there are the dice cast to decide to whom it should go. Ladder, hammer and pincers were all used for the physical act of crucifixion, the ascent of the body, the nailing of the hands and feet, the subsequent removing of the nails and the taking down of the dead body.
Purple altar frontal: supplier’s label (North Stoke Church, Oxon.)
This main body of the frontal is in fairly good preservation, probably because it is only used for a couple of months each year. But the top edge and the individual panels with the crucifixion symbols are showing more wear, both in the background silk and the goldwork of the small embroidered implements whose couching threads are beginning to break up. The re-doing of the couching threads is not a difficult job but the disintegration of the background is more problematic. This is the only frontal with a label (see above) and I hope someone may see this and be able to tell us more about the provenance of this beautiful altar frontal.
Purple altar frontal: detail of silk brocade (North Stoke Church, Oxon.)
*Anyone reading this blog regularly knows how fond I am of monograms and it is right that Christ should have his own. For more about Christograms see here (scroll to the last paragraph of the blog post). Recently I have also learned that ihs can also be read as ‘ in hoc signo vinces’, that is ‘in this sign will you conquer’.
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