Birds in tree-like interlace

Luxuriant trees with rampant roots grow in the corners of the capital. Their undulating branches bifurcate and curl into thorn-like points. On each side of the capital two birds are perched amid the branches; their bodies form elegant arabesques. Their tail feathers stretch down to the annulet. One delicate claw grasps a lower branch, the other a higher one. One wing is spread before a bough, the other behind it. The birds’ heads are swivelled backwards. A frieze with double-headed eagles runs round the impost block.
This and two further capitals are presumably linked with the story of Nebuchadnezzar and his dream of a tree which grows up to heaven (Dan 4:7-14): “I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth; and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. Its leaves were fair and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the air dwelt in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.” This sculptural repertoire is frequently drawn on in cloisters. Yet the pattern for birds with round and supple necks and backwards-swivelled heads is rather to be found in Islamic textiles. So too is the kind of low relief used in this capital, which could derive from ivory carvings of Islamic origin. So here there was a deliberate recurrence to “oriental” models, which shows that images were quite consciously chosen to evoke particular associations.

textiles bird tree Nebuchadnezzar Islamic