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The Annunciation, Tarrant Crawford, Dorset (!Salisbury [Sarum]) C.14

Photo:T.Marshall

Annunciation, Tarrant Crawford [85KB]
The faded remains of a very fine Annunciation. It is comparable for quality to the contemporary painting of the same subject at South Newington in Oxfordshire.

The winged figure of Gabriel is on the left, holding a tall narrow sceptre and with a speech-scroll which probably once bore the words of his Salutation. The Virgin is at the right, possibly also with a speech-scroll, but these details are very hard to see. In between the two at the bottom of the picture, and faintly outlined now, is a lily-pot with, at the right, a reversed-C shaped handle. There is perhaps a lectern or reading-desk at the far right, beyond the Virgin.

The draperies of the two well proportioned and articulated figures have an easy elegance. Most of the paintings at Tarrant Crawford are framed within painted tabernacles in architectural Decorated style, and the upper part of one shows at the top of the picture. A second piscina (in addition to that serving the High Altar in the chancel) near the painting suggests that it was set above a Lady Altar, dedicated to the Virgin. Nave piscinas of this kind, marking the location of a Lady Chapel or altar, are still fairly commonly found.

Nearby Tarrant Abbey (formerly called Tarrant Kaines/Keynes) was once a wealthy house of (eventually) Cistercian nuns. Nothing is left of it apart from a medieval barn, and it is most unlikely that the nuns, who had various problems of their own to contend with during the 14th century¹, had any hand in commissioning the paintings in the church. In addition to the Annunciation, these include a damaged but very full Life of St. Margaret (forthcoming) and a Three Living & Three Dead.

¹They were strictly enclosed after 1303 following Pope Boniface V111s Bull Periculoso. And in 1343 their Abbess was granted a license to cut down (possibly for fuel, possibly to clear the land for rebuilding) 200 acres of underwood on their demesne because their house and possessions in the county of Dorset had been burned and destroyed by an invasion of the kings enemies in those parts. [Eileen Power, Medieval English Nunneries, Cambridge, 1922, p.350, 434 ]

Website for St Mary the Virgin, Tarrant Crawford

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Annunciation, Chalgrove, Oxon. Annunciation, Little Melton, Norfolk Annunciation, Gisleham, Suffolk Annunciation, Slapton, Northants
Annunciation, Sth. Newington, Oxfordshire Annunciation, Tarrant Crawford, Dorset Annunciation, Martley, Worcestershire Annunciation/Visitation, Faversham, Kent
Annunciation/Visitation/Nativity, Newton Green, Suffolk Annunciation/Visitation, Pinvin, Worcs Annunciation-Fring, Norfolk Visitation, Dale Abbey, Derbys
Visitation, Salisbury (S.Thomas), Wilts. The Burial of the Virgin, Pickering, N.Yorks NEW Death, Burial & Coronation of the Virgin, Sutton Bingham, Somerset Coronation of the Virgin, Black Bourton, Oxon
Background to Statue, with painted angels, Brent Eleigh, Suffolk Virgin Enthroned, with angels, Arundel, Sussex Virgin Enthroned, with donors, Cawston, Norfolk Life of the Virgin, Broughton, Oxon.
Virgin & Child, with wand and apple, South Newington, Oxford Virgin & Child, with sceptre & orb(?), Wickhamford, Worcs. Virgin suckling the Christ Child, Beckley, Oxon. Virgin suckling the Christ Child, Belchamp Walter, Essex
Death, Burial, Assumption & Coronation of the Virgin, Chalgrove, Oxfordshire Virgin intervening at the Weighing of Souls, Lathbury, Buckinghamshire The Annunciation/St Anne teaching the Virgin to read, Chapel of Our Lady of Bradwell, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire NEW Virgin & child enthroned/With SS Margaret, Catherine & Mary Magdalene, Little Wenham, Suffolk NEW

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2/6/2001

© Anne Marshall 2001