Altar Frontals. Antependia.

Altar Frontal (Antependium)

designed by Charles Eamer Kempe.

Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

Text is taken from “Altar Frontals”, by Joan M. Petersen
M.A., F.L.A., former Librarian to The Council for the Care of Churches, and is dated 1962.

Published by: Church Information Office, Church House, Westminster, London S.W.1.

Altar Frontal (Antependium)

designed by Charles Eamer Kempe.

Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

Both in this Country and on the Continent, there is now a tendency towards greater austerity and simplicity in Church Architecture and Furnishing [Editor: The Reader must realise that this Text is dated 1962].

As a result of this tendency, a bare, unvested Altar, either in Stone or Wood, has become a feature of many Churches. The advocates of this treatment sometimes affirm that it represents a return to the simple and primitive Sanctity of The Early Church.

Whether or not this is the case, the unvested Altar marks both a change from what is certainly a very ancient custom of the Church, and also a deviation from the legal requirements of The Church of England.

Illustration: NEW LITURGICAL MOVEMENT

It therefore seems useful to assemble and consider the available evidence about the methods and purpose of the Traditional treatment of the Altar.

The Altar in the primitive Church.

We have little or no knowledge as to the treatment of the Altar in the first four Centuries A.D., but, from the 5th-Century A.D, onwards, we have definite evidence, both literary and archæological, for the use of Altar Frontals.

Palladius [Editor: Wikipedia states that Palladius (408 A.D. – 457 A.D.) was the first Bishop of the Christians of Ireland, preceding Saint Patrick], tells us that Roman ladies gave their silk dresses to form coverings for the Altar.

To the following Century, may be assigned the famous mosaics in the Churches of Sant’Apollinare in Classe and San Vitale in Ravenna, both in Italy, which show an Altar veiled with what appears to be a Frontal, and then almost covered with an ample linen cloth.

The Altar Frontal in The Middle Ages.

The use of the Altar Frontal continued to be general in Western Christendom, as numerous Miniatures in Manuscripts testify. One of the earliest examples is in the Register of Hyde Abbey, Winchester (BM Stowe MS 960), which was drawn circa 1020, and which shows King Canute placing upon The High Altar at Winchester the Great Golden Cross, or Reliquary, which he had given to the Monastery.

Examples of textile Altar Frontals can be cited for every Century up to The Reformation. Some of the loveliest embroidery in Europe, known as “Opus Anglicanum [Editor: “English Work”], was to be found on Altar Frontals.

The Altar in Saint Mary’s Anglican Church, Redcliffe, 

Bristol. It is decorated with an elaborate Altar Frontal 

in Green, a colour typically associated with the 

Time After Epiphany and the Time After Pentecost.

Photo: 2 April 2005.

Source: Own work.

Author: Arpingstone

(Wikimedia Commons)

One of the most notable examples of this was on the Great Frontal given to Westminster Abbey by King Henry III, which appears to have been made under the direction of The King’s Goldsmith, and was described by the Late W. R. Lethaby as having been “a flexible piece of Goldsmith’s Work”. It consisted of magnificent Gold embroidery (which occupied three women workers nearly four years), studded with Pearls, Garnets, and Enamels.

There was an equally famous Altar Frontal at Canterbury, known as “The Glory”, which King Henry VIII seized and had melted down for its Gold.

Indeed, in the greater and richer Churches, the Altar Frontal was not necessarily made of a textile material. In Italy and Denmark, a number of Frontals in precious metals survive to this day. The most famous of these are the Frontals in the Treasury of Saint Mark’s, Venice, one of which is made of Silver, with statues of Saints in niches, and which dates from the 14th-Century.

There are others at Sant’Ambrogio, Milan, and Monza Cathedral, and Santissima Annunziata, Florence, and at Pisa, Pistoia. All of which are real Frontals, quite detachable, and movable.

Danish Romanesque gold Altar Frontal (Antependium), 

once set with Precious Gems, circa 1200 – 1225. From 

Ølst Church, near Randers, Denmark. Displayed at the National Museum in Copenhagen , Denmark.

Photo: 14 May 2011.

Source: Own work.

Attribution:

Nationalmuseet - commons.

wikimedia.org - CC-BY-SA-3.

Author: Knud Winckelmann

(Wikimedia Commons)

At the Church of Santo Spirito, Florence, painted Frontals of canvas or thin wood are to be found. Elsewhere, both in England and abroad, leather Altar Frontals were sometimes provided, some of which survive, e.g., at Saint Michael Spurriergate, York.

Whatever the material, the underlying idea was, and still should be, that of paying homage to God through the provision of a veil for his Altar of the finest manufacture that could be afforded.

The provision of a decent Altar Frontal is but a manifestation of a sound instinct of reverence, which runs right through the Bible and the history of the Church.

The veiled faces of the Cherubim, which Isaiah was privileged to behold, have their Earthly counterpart. In the old Israel, this was the Tabernacle concealing the Ark of the Covenant. In the new Israel, if is the veiling of the Altar.

Altar Frontal in tempera paint on wood panel 

and stucco, Spain, Catalonia, circa 1250, depicting 

Christ in Majesty and Saint Martin.

Date: 1250.

Collection: Walters Art Museum

Acquired by Henry Walters, 1915.

This File: 21 March 2012.

User: Kaldari

Source: Walters Art Museum:

Author: Anonymous (Spain).

(Wikimedia Commons)

The idea that Altar Frontals exist to teach the Seasons of The Church is something quite Modern and trivial compared with this. It was long felt that the Altar was so Sacred that the only time when it should cease to be veiled was at the close of Holy Week, when its stripping and bareness should symbolise the stripping and scourging of Our Lord.

If the Altar is kept bare all the year round, this valuable visual lesson is lost [Editor: Modernists take note, please].

The Parish Church of Our Lady Saint Mary, at South Creake, Norfolk, is close to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. The Church is mostly 14th- and 15th-Century. Its High Altar is shown with a Lenten Altar Frontal made (probably in the 1920s or 1930s) by The Warham Guild, the business that 

Percy Dearmer established to make this sort of thing.

The Frontal is unbleached linen with a fringe of Black 

and Red and the motifs on it are stencilled. The stencilling 

is a striking design - a Black lattice is formed from thorn, 

in allusion to The Lord’s Crown of Thorns; this lattice encloses a series of motifs. Shields charged with Instruments of The Passion in a band with, above and below, alternating stencils of triple nails and triple drops of blood. The Church has a full set of Lent Array and, in the Sarum Use from the beginning of Lent, each Altar and all the images are covered in veils and hangings of stout linen. In the Roman Rite, this happens 

from Passion Sunday, onwards.

Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART