A rare set of five English carved oak narrative panels, 15th/16th century

The panel that features three figures may well be a representation of the arrest of Christ. The moulded frieze divison that runs horizontally across this panel is a device seen on other early fragments. There is a 15th century Nottingham Alabaster panel depicting St Peter receiving the souls of the blessed into Heaven in the Victoria and Albert Museum illustrated by Francis Cheetham, English Medieval Alabasters, Oxford, p. 144, no. 73, which features a similar division.

The confusing mass of grotesques and men-beasts is very interesting. These half human beasts are often scene as an illustration of 'human nature subjugated by animal passions', Christa Grðssinger, The World Upside-Down, English Misericords, London, p.14.

There are also misericords which feature foliate motifs emerging from human mouths. This could be a reference to the Green Man a symbol of fertility, (Cheetham, op. cit. p. 157).

For another panel which features a similar fantastic composite beast see Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture, The British Tradition, Woodbridge, p. 178, fig. 2:182.

It is hard to ascertain an exact date. The costumes featured are 15th century and yet there is a degree of naivety as well as the foliate motifs which appear to date from the 16th century.