Suckling and city monuments

The musicians atop Sir John and Martha Suckling's Monument

Rather belatedly, and with our next Secret Norwich: Heritage After Dark Talk imminent (Cathedral graffiti next Thursday 29th Nov), here's the low down on our most excellent October introduction to Suckling and other city monuments by Richard Cocke. 

Now that the nights have firmly drawn in it really was heritage after dark as we entered the chilly nave of St Andrews Church with arcades up-lit beautifully. It was a real privilege to slip through the creaky wooden doors after hours. 

Richard Cocke, retired senior lecturer of art history at UEA and trustee of local charity Sculpture for Norwich, was awaiting us. In the north east chapel of the church we crowded in to admire no less than 3 remarkable monuments. Our focus was on the wonderful two commissioned by Sir John Suckling, whose father was the former inhabitant of Cinema City, or Suckling House, just next door. 

John lies, commemorated in marble and very much alert, looking over the resting body of his first wife, Martha. The work was commissioned while John was married to his second partner and Richard mused about some pangs of guilt he perhaps felt for his deceased-wife. The pair rest on a bed of expensive black marble which in turn is, unbelievably, supported by two small skulls which somehow remain un-crushed by the hefty weight of the enormous monument towering above them. Peak in to the small space the skulls create and an enshrouded figure representing the dead body of Martha is just visible. The tomb does not hold her actual remains, or John's. The monument is inscribed in several different languages, Latin, French, Spanish, English and Italian, showing off the family's international connections and scholarly attributes. It also has some rather lovely iconography: a set of 4 musicians at the top, a rather unusual choice, a bird - probably a dove - flying from its cage, a woodland scene and a sailing ship being tossed by the winds. 

                                 

The ship perhaps alludes to Sir John's trading activities or is a metaphorical vessel for the soul blown by the winds of God to a resting place. The dove flying to freedom is accompanied by the Italian word 'sciolta', meaning free, perhaps also a reference to the freed soul of Martha or at least the family's hopes for the destiny of their mother's spirit. The woodland scene is in-keeping with this story of life and death. It represents living as well as fallen trees which nod to the human cycle of life. 

The monument to the east was also commissioned by Sir John, this time for his parents. It is typical of monuments of its time, and a tad earlier here in the city. A similar one commemorates the Sotherton's in St Johns Maddermarket, just up the road. This one also has some lovely iconography, on the upper level is honeysuckle, used here as a rebus for the family name since it was locally known as 'suckling'. What look like pomegranates, apples and vines weave around the base of 2 skulls, look closely and worm also wriggles form an apple. This is an allegory of life and death, of decomposition following ripeness, similar to the message in the woodland image made later. 

After examining the stones we also heard about the colourful life of Sir John's son who was an entertaining poet and man of court, described in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as 

"a poet, playwright, and belletrist, but he was a writer mainly by avocation, and by second nature. He was first and last a wit and a courtier to Charles I, being occupied mainly as a gentleman officer, socio-political observer, gamester, amorist, and marital fortune seeker—often impetuously and not always successfully".

We then moved on to the equally wonderful, this time terracotta tomb in St Geroge's Colegate, a work that should be of national importance. But if you want the full story of these packed and fascinating events, you're going to have to start coming along! If we told you everything, they wouldn't be secret, would they!?

Come to the next...

-Medieval Graffitti by Torch Light, expert Matthew Champion will guide us around our well known Cathedral in a new light, illuminating the marks and statements left by city folk hundreds of years ago. Thurs 29th Nov, Norwich Cathedral, Tombland at 7pm and afterwards for slides and wine at Farmer Browns, Tombland until 9.