Architectural sculpture in Normandy from the beginning of the eleventh century to the end of the Romanesque period offers many fascinating aspects, although a regrettable lack of interest relegated it to the background of art history until recent years. Fortunately, the studies of Professor G. Zarneckil have described its development and its links with English sculpture before and after the Conquest of 1066, the consequences of which were at least as important in the field of art as in those of politics and economics. On the French side, important papers from the late L. Grodecki and from Professor L. Musset showed the real interest and importance of Norman sculpture in Bernay, Goult, Rucqtleville andother places. In fact, copious chapters could be dedicated to some particular and significant points, such as the development of Corinthian-derived capitals which first appear in Bernay Abbey church, the origins of geometric chip-carving so powerfully implanted in the Anglo- Norman area after 1066, or the exact links between ornamental styles in manuscript illtimination and similar decoration on capitals in Jumièges, GouIt, Fécamp. Professor Zarnecki very accurately summarized for members of the 1978 Battle Conference the meaning and importance of each one of these subjects, and, after many years of research on eleventh-century Norman sculpture, I hope to be able to publish shortly the results of a comprehensive study. But in this paper, I would like to deal with a peculiar kind of ornamental sculpture which does not belong exactly to any of the artistic trends above-mentioned; that is, carved interlace, one of the oldest types of ornament in art history, and one of the most widespread in medieval art.

A study of Norman interlace carving may seem at first sight far-fetched: while carved strapwork was extremely intricate and highly developed in Celtic and Scandinavian art,’ as well as in Lombard sculpture, and frequently appears in some groups of Romanesque carvings, it does not seem to have been greatly favoured by Norman sculptors. It remained very rare in the eleventh century and, even at the time at which geometric ornament was most widespread, it does not appear as repeatedly as chevron, chip-carved stars and other very common patterns. Yet a complete list of ornaments shows that each of the different groups of sculptures with carved interlacing decoration gives new insights into the study of Nonnan art.