Elsdon Gravestones: Abraham and Isaac

Elsdon: Abraham & Isaac gravestone on left, south transept,nearest nave

In the  Northumbrian village of Elsdon there is a very interesting church and churchyard.It has some of the most curious and primitive gravestones in the county. They tend to be from the Eighteenth Century but you would hardly know it. In style there is something of the innocence of an embroidery of a hundred years before. The Douanier Roussseau might have liked them.

Elsdon Churchyard: Time with Scythe

Elsdon Churchyard:Adam and Eve

I am showing two of them which might be the work of the same craftsman. There is also another carving-even more primitive which I did not know about until last summer when my partner spotted that the back of one of the stones-very close to the church had something carved on it. The carving is difficult to see and photograph but it obviously represents the story of Abraham and Isaac. Because it is so close to the wall of the south transept you cannot easily get behind it to frame a photo. This is one time when I would have liked to have a compact with me. As it is I show a sketch based on some partial images.

Elsdon Churchyard: Abraham and Isaac

This is  a primitive piece of work and the  figures are  presented frontally and parallel to the picture plane in one of the most ancient conventions for story telling in low relief.

On the left is the ram caught in the thicket.. Note the prominent horns. In the original you can see the naive drilling to represent the space between the curling horns. On the right is the kneeling figure of Isaac almost at the point of being sacrificed. In the middle is the patriarch Abraham with sword raised aloft.

Immediately above the Old Testament scene is a conventional cherub's head. Not shown. The carver had his pattern book or schemata to work from in that case and the work was efficient. Not so with the Old Testament scene. Perhaps it was his only effort with this subject and from an academic viewpoint the struggle is apparent.The carver was thrown back on his own invention and produced a clear if crude account of the story.

Elsdon: Abraham & Isaac
Colour photos added Feb 9, 2014