Incorporated internally into the east wall of the south transept, north of the apse

None; first noted between 1732 and 1796 by Burrell; in present location when first published in Horsefield 1835

St Mary

Chipped, but otherwise well preserved

It is rectangular and decorated with a figure beneath an arch. The arch is supported by two half-round columns. That to the left rests on a plain rectangular base, the base to the right is damaged. Each capital is decorated with a row of upright, parallel-sided, pointed-ended, hollowed leaves developing from the collar separating the capital from the column. Each capital supports a plain abacus with up-turned ends. The arch head is narrow and in high relief, and consists of a median moulding with a convex face flanked by a pair of narrower mouldings with pointed faces. At each end where the median moulding rests on the abacus it unites with the stem of a five-lobed, outward-curling leaf, with the lobes facing inwards. The junctions of the stems and moulding are relieved by hollowed triangles with concave sides. The outer moulding of the arch head is extended to enclose each leaf before terminating on the abacus. Beneath the arch is a robed, nimbed, frontally-placed figure, with the head and feet turned to the right. The nimbus is dished and the facial features well marked. The lentoid eye is placed high up, and the hair confined to the back of the head. The figure's left forearm is stretched out to the left at waist level and holds a book. Just above it the figure's right arm is held out across the body. Two fingers of the hand are extended in blessing to touch the book, the others are curled back. The robe is pulled tight over the chest and legs and falls to each side about the feet. The sleeves are loose, but below the elbow are more tightly fitting with close lateral ribbing. The book which the figure holds is supported by a vertical stand resting on the lower edge of the panel. The stem is half-round in section and bends back at waist level before rising vertically once more, now in square section, and then turning in at right angles to enclose the book on three sides. To the figure's left is a vertically-placed crozier, also standing on the lower edge of the panel. This has a half-round stem separated from the head by a collar. The head curls over towards the figure, and has an incised median line.

The identification of the figure presents a number of problems. The figure is tonsured and has to the left a crozier and to the right a reading desk. It must, therefore, represent a monk who was also a bishop and possibly an author. Unfortunately, there is no comparable figure in stone, metalwork, or ivory from southern England, and it is necessary to turn to the manuscripts for comparative iconography. These depict five possible candidates: St Gregory; St Benedict; St Aldhelm; St Dunstan; and St Aethelwold.

St Dunstan and St Aethelwold are depicted twice in pre-Conquest manuscripts, in BL MS Cotton Tiberius A. III, fol. 2v (Temple 1976, no. 100, 118–19, ill. 313), and in a copy of it, Durham Cathedral Library MS B. III. 32, fol. 56v (ibid., no. 101, 119, ill. 315). In both scenes the two figures occur seated together, each holding a Tau-shaped crozier and an opened scroll. St Dunstan wears the pallium. The only point of resemblance with the Sompting figure is in the form of St Dunstan's tonsure where the front and top of the head are bald and the hair is gathered at the back of the head: precisely the arrangement seen at Sompting. This feature is not confined to depictions of St Dunstan, however. The figure of St Aldhelm in Lambeth Palace Library MS 200, fol. 68v, has a similar tonsure (ibid., no. 39, 62–3, ill. 132). In contrast, the drawings of St Aldhelm in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Bodley 577, fols. 1r, 1v (ibid., no. 57, 75–6, ills. 179–80) show the saint with a normal tonsure. On fol. 1r he has a lectern to the right as on no. 13, but on fol. 1v he is standing, facing right and presenting his book (De Virginitate) to the nuns of Barking. In neither case is the figure accompanied by a crozier.

St Benedict is depicted three times in pre-Conquest manuscripts, in BL MS Arundel 155, fol. 133v (Temple 1976, no. 66, 84–5, ill. 213); BL MS Cotton Tiberius A. III, fol. 117v (ibid., no. 100, 118–19, ill. 314); and in Orléans, Bibl. Mun. MS 175, fol. 149r (ibid., no. 43, 66, ill. 144). In Arundel 155 and Tiberius A. III the figure is seated, has the figure of a monk at his feet and is tonsured; in the former he holds a crozier. In Tiberius A. III there is a lectern to the right of the saint, but in Arundel 155 a manuscript of his rule is presented to him by a monk. In the Orléans manuscript the saint is standing and facing left and tonsured in the same way as the Sompting figure, but there is no crozier or reading desk. The three depictions of St Benedict between them, therefore, cover all of the iconographic features encountered at Sompting, although no individual representation provides an adequate parallel in itself.

The same situation is encountered in the two pre-Conquest depictions of St Gregory. In the Orléans manuscript, fol. 149r (Temple 1976, no. 43, ill. 144), the saint is tonsured, standing, and facing right. He holds a crozier and an open book in his left hand and at his feet is a monk. In Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Tanner 3, fol. 1v (ibid., no. 89, 105–6, ill. 298), the saint is seated and has a book on a reading stand to the right. The figure may originally have been tonsured, but in a twelfth-century overpainting a mitre and crozier have been added.

In Anglo-Saxon manuscript art the Sompting figure, therefore, seems to have most in common with the depictions of St Gregory or St Benedict and may represent one or other of them. There is no reason to assume, however, that the iconographic traditions of the sculptor were necessarily those of the manuscript painter. Nevertheless, both the style of the figure and the form of the arch find close parallels in late pre-Conquest manuscripts, suggesting an eleventh-century date for the piece. For more detailed discussion of its dating see Chap. VII.

Eleventh century

Horsefield 1835, i, 205; André 1898, 18; Jessep 1914, 38; Clapham 1935a, 408 - 9, pl. IX; Mee 1937, 343, pl. facing 273; Rice 1947, 11; Rice 1952, 107, pl. 15b; Fisher 1959, 90; Quirk 1961, 31; Fisher 1962, 381, pl. 218; Nairn and Pevsner 1965, 331; Taylor and Taylor 1965 - 78, ii, 562; Fisher 1970, 181 - 2; Kirby 1978, 165; Tweddle 1986b, i, 76 - 8, 211 - 14, ii, 469 - 71, iii, pl. 89b