Misericords are narrow ledges on the undersides of wooden seats in the choir of a church. When turned up, they allowed monks and priests to rest while remaining upright during long services. The name ‘misericord’ means ‘act of mercy’. They are a common feature of English church interiors from the 14^th to early 16^th centuries, and were often elaborately carved with allegorical creatures or scenes from everyday life.

This example is from a series of eighteen made for the chapel of Winchester College soon after the school’s foundation. It shows a shepherd gathering a ram and an ewe under each arm. On the right another shepherd has fallen while carrying a sheep. The imagery perhaps alludes to the biblical description of Christ as a ‘good shepherd’, and to the role of a priest in caring for their flock.

Literature: Medieval Sculptures at Winchester College (Winchester, 1932), pp. 13-14, plate XXXVI; George Lyons Remnant, A Catalogue of Misericords in Great Britain (Oxford, 1968) pp. 60-61; Marshall Laird, English Misericords (London, 1986), p. 25; Charles Tracy, English Gothic Choir-Stalls, 1200-1400 (Suffolk, 1987), pp. 57–57, 59, plates 190, 196, 202a–f; Christa Grössinger, The World Upside-Down: English Misericords (London, 1997), pp. 51-53; Juanita Ballew Wood, Wooden Images: Misericords and Medieval England (British Columbia, 1999) pp. 86, 24; N. Pevsner et al, The Buildings of England. Hampshire: Winchester and the North (Yale, 2010), p. 649; Paul Hardwick, English Medieval Misericords: The Margins of Meaning (Suffolk, 2011), pp. 167, 42, no. 91; Richard Foster, Winchester College: A guide to the collections (2015), pp. 6-7; Richard Foster (ed.), Fifty Treasures from Winchester College (London, 2019), p. 13

Provenance: Commissioned for the choir stalls in chapel, c. 1393-94

Location: Chapel