Voussoir from the West Doorway of the Temple Church (Saint Mary the Virgin) in London, carved limestone (Caen stone), England, ca. 1180-85

A hollow moulding with a ram's head with pierced, scrolling foliage issuing from its mouth. Weathered and chipped, this voussoir retains traces of paint. On the top moulding there is inscribed the number X.

Given by the Architectural Association

Given by the Architectural Association from the Royal Architectural Museum, Westminster, 1916.
This voussoir and three further architectural fragments in the V&A's collection (mus. nos A.19-1916, A.21-1916, A.22-1916) come from the West doorway at Temple Church (Saint Mary the Virgin) in London. Temple Church was consecrated on 10 February 1185, a date recorded in an inscription over the West doorway, since destroyed and replaced by a copy inside the church (Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), London, Vol IV, The City, London , 1929, p. 137). Unfortunately, the church has suffered considerably from restorations and changes made through the centuries, the restorations of the nineteenth century being the most serious (see Gardam 1990).
The architectural fragments had entered the collections of the Architectural Association by 1876, when they were described by Sir George Gilbert Scott in his Guide to the Royal Architectural Museum (p. 5). In this context, it is important to highlight that Decimus Burton, the architect who together with Sydney Smirke was responsible for the restorations at Temple Church begun in 1842, was listed as a donor of architectural fragments in the Catalogue of the Architectural Museum in 1855 (Williamson 1983). In 1842, Smirke and Burton reported the following on the West doorway at Temple Church: 'On removing the plaster and colouring that filled up the enriched archivolts, which are surprisingly perforated and sunk, we find that those carved stones are so perished as to be for the most part incapable of receiving reparations and that they ought to be entirely new' (Zarnecki 1975, p. 247). It is likely that the present architectural fragments now at the V&A were removed at the time of this restoration campagin (Griffith Jones 2010, p. 213). That Smirke and Burton extensively (or even completely) renewed the voussoirs, is evident in the photographs of the doorway published by the Royal Commission (pl. 181). Here, the whole door is in pristine condition, with the voussoirs as crisply carved as the undoubtedly new jambs.
The original positions of the V&A fragments on the doorway are clear. The two voussoirs with animal heads (A.19-1916 and A.20-1916) were set into the innermost of the seven orders of the doorway. The marks III and X are presumably assembly marks and refer to their original positions on the arch, that is the third and tenth of the twelve inner voussoirs. The voussoir with foliage (A.21-1916) occupied a position on the outermost, seventh order, and the impost block (A.22-1916) would have been set above the outermost capital to the right of the door.
Stylistically, the sculpture of the West doorway at the Temple church has been related to the West doorway of Dunstable Priory in Bedfordshire, dated to around 1190, and it has also been suggested that a London workshop was responsible for both works (Zarnecki 1975, pp. 248-50).

A voussoir is a wedge-shaped stone or brick used to form an arch of the sort commonly seen in medieval churches.

This voussoir, a wedge-shaped or tapered stone used to construct an arch, is one of four architectural fragments in the V&A's collection that come from the West doorway of the Temple Church (Saint Mary the Virgin) in London. It consists of a hollow moulding decorated with aram's head with pierced, scrolling foliage issuing from its mouth. The fragment is weathered and chipped, but still retrains traces of pigmentation. The voussoir was probably removed at the time of a restoration campaign in 1841-42, and must originally have been set into the innermost of the seven orders of the doorway. The mark 'X' on the top moulding presumably is an assembly mark referring to its original position on the arch.

A.20-1916