Seals of Ecclesiastical Institutions (2)
Ecclesiastical seals could carry religious motifs drawn directly from the repertoire of other forms of church art.
	This seal bears an image of the Virgin and child enthroned, a motif popular with religious institutions. The Virgin sits beneath an architectural canopy and is flanked by two shields of arms.
	Seal of the chantry of Mettingham, Suffolk, from the early 15th century.
As designs became more elaborate, they adopted certain features derived from architecture. The seal at right has three figures of saints under architectural canopies. It is intriguing that an art form so minute and intricate could receive inspiration from another so large and monumental. The figures are arranged in similar manner to sculpted stone figures on facades, screens or funerary monuments.
Seal with figures of saints, of the College of Tanworth.
The examples shown indicate that seals of ecclesiastical institutions could be either round or pointed oval. Only the most elaborate, such as that of Westminster Abbey, were double sided, but sometimes a smaller counterseal was used on the reverse.
In this general category one might also consider the universities, as they were originally founded to educate the clergy and their seals carry similar iconographic representations.
	The first seal of Balliol College shows the founders, John de Balliol and his wife Dervorguilla, kneeling and holding shields of arms with one hand (impossible to distinguish here) while with the other they support a model of the college buildings. The Virgin sits enthroned within the building, indicating the dedication of the college.
	First seal of Balliol College, Oxford.
The seal of Oxford University itself depicts a group of academics under an architectural canopy that suggests that the vision of dreaming spires goes back quite a long way. It represents the chancellor of the university presiding over a disputation. It's nice to know that nothing much has changed in universities in over 700 years.
The first seal of the University of Oxford, from the 13th century.
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Seals
Decoration
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