SNN108366 - A New Interpretation of the Sculpted Tympanum of All Saints, Pitsford

The carving on the tympanum of All Saints church, Pitsford is one of a group of rare 12th-century English sculptures depicting Christ’s Redemption of mankind. The scene is Christ’s Descent into Hades to destroy Death, here personified by Behemoth, the twin figure of Leviathan. The main literary source of these carvings is the Ransom Theory as expounded by Pope Gregory the Great in his lengthy commentary on the Book of Job, the Moralia in Job completed shortly before 597. At the end of the 12th century the Ransom Theory was abandoned in favour of Anselm’s exposition of the Doctrine of the Atonement. Consequently, carvings depicting the Ransom theory, such as the Pitsford tympanum, vanished for ever from the repertoire of ecclesiastical sculpture, and the scenes and characters depicted are now either a source of mystery or are reinterpreted to fit later doctrines. It is to be hoped that the unique historical importance of the whole surviving corpus of 12th-century English sculpture will become more widely recognised and that this heritage will be properly preserved for posterity.