Illustration: Tessellated pavement design from Meaux Abbey, Yorkshire, England.
The two illustrations for this article derive from Meaux Abbey in East Yorkshire, England. Although nothing now remains of the structure of the Abbey which was originally founded in 1151, various decorative elements have been found in the past.
After the abbey was closed in 1539 by order of Henry VIII, it was eventually dismantled and carted away to Hull where it was used to help build defences for the town. An ignominious and perhaps specifically pointed end to a building that had been created specifically for spiritual use. Some of the flooring must either have escaped notice, or probably more correctly, appeared unrelated to the more substantial building materials found elsewhere in the Abbey.
In this respect, two decorative tessellated floors were found in 1834 and were sketched at the time, the two illustrations shown here, being from that period. What has become of the floors since they were discovered is uncertain as there seems little, if any mention of them after their initial discovery. There are some small pieces of ceramic tiling still extant, though no sign of more substantial flooring.
At any rate, the two illustrations from 1834 give a fascinating insight into geometrical medieval pattern work. It would probably be fair to say that these images are relatively exact, compared at least to earlier periods, as by 1834 the old antiquarian study of artefacts was becoming much more exacting, scientifically based and professionally motivated. Both examples have used the circle as the mainstay of the decoration, with the full use of the concentric, along with floral motifs also produced in a strictly geometric style using arcs of circles to produce the petals. Anyone familiar with a compass will know how easily, but effectively, full circles and arcs of circles can be used to produce often complex pattern work.
Illustration: Tessellated pavement design from Meaux Abbey, Yorkshire, England.
The full beauty of these two decorative floor pieces is indeed the fact that there is little that falls outside of the circular. Although the second illustration does seem to give the appearance of the addition of straight lines to the pattern work, this could easily be accounted for by the emphasis of the edging of separate pieces that were used in the making of the pattern, rather than the use of line itself.
Both examples of pattern work give a good indication of medieval sophistication when it came to pattern for decorative effect. It is interesting to note that although much of what we see from the medieval period in Europe does tend to be figurative in format, the abstract was used fairly extensively, particularly within religious interiors. These types of floors, ranging from Sicily to Scandinavia, although varying in style, material and skill, give an impression that the abstract was used in pattern work just as effectively as it was in the Islamic world. There is also an element of symbolism and connection with spiritual ideas that are also shared with the Islamic decorative world, although how much of this was involved within the decoration found at Meaux Abbey, if any, is unknown.
If anyone has information as to what became of these two tessellated floor designs, I would be very grateful to hear from them.
Further reading links:
On Four Spanish-Moresco Tiles Found At Meaux Abbey (1894)
Historic Floors (Conservation & Museology S.)
Westminster Abbey: The Cosmati Pavements (Courtauld Research Papers)
Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World
Italian Mosaics: 300-1300 (Prequel to Italian Frescoes)
The Mosaic Decoration of San Marco, Venice
Medieval Art
Early Medieval Art (Oxford History of Art)
Decorated Medieval Floor Tiles of Somerset
Medieval Floor Tiles Of Northern England: Pattern And Purpose: Production Between The 13th And 16th Centuries
Medieval 'Westminster' Floor Tiles (MoLAS Monograph)
Historic English Churches: A Guide to Their Construction, Design and Features
The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery, and Meaning in an Ordinary Church
