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The Layer Quaternity are four marble sculpture figurines approximately 25 centimetres (10 in) in height located on the two columns of the Layer Monument, an early 17th century polychrome mural monument (320 by 350 centimetres [130 in × 140 in]) installed in the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Maddermarket, Norwich to the memory of Christopher Layer (1531-1600).
Contents
Style
The quartet of figurines sculptured in marble, Pax, Gloria, Vanity, Labor exhibit primary thematic concerns and stylistic attributes of Northern Mannerist art, namely, portraiture of animated human movement, variety and multiplicity, often set in the Classical or mythological world, and inclined towards esoteric concepts.
Interpretation
The four figurines housed in the monument's pilasters, Pax and Gloria, Vanitas and Labor, (Peace, Glory, Vanity, Labor) are relatively rare examples of Northern Mannerist sculpture extant in Britain. Collectively they exemplify how Christian iconography during the era of Elizabeth I, in tandem with Renaissance Europe, integrated symbolism from the western esoteric traditions of alchemy and astrology into works of art, including the funerary monument. The Layer Quaternity in their totality are a unique alchemical mandala. Through polarized symbolism they delineate essential coordinates associated with mandala art, namely Space (Heaven and Earth) and Time (Young and Old). They also represent fundamental aspects of the human condition, namely, gender, youth and age, as well as pleasure and suffering. In essence, the Layer Quaternity, not unlike the Scaiolae of Paracelsus (which are discussed by Libavius in Alchemia) are a quaternity of differentiated virtues or psychic entities which represent a complete wholeness or totality in sum.
Psychological associations
The role of the Quaternity in religious symbolism is discussed at length by Carl Gustav Jung. Much of his in-depth study and observations upon the function and role of the quaternity in religious symbolism is applicable to the Layer Quaternity. To Jung the quaternity was a natural expression of differentiation which always represents a totality, citing the four elements, the four seasons, the ancient Greek schemata of the four humours, and the four temperaments, as well as the four Evangelists with their respective emblems in the form of the tetramorph in Christian iconography, as examples.
The symbolism of the four entities of the Layer Quaternity exemplify Jung's observation that individuation develops through psychic qualities consisting of two pairs of opposites, which are often polarised to each other.
As such, the Layer Quaternity may be viewed as exemplary of Renaissance-era psychology. Its four highly-symbolic figurine entities are simultaneously, a 'map' of the psyche, and a highly-original alchemical mandala in western funerary art.