Mad staring eyes

This is a capital in the doorway of St Helen's Church in Stillingfleet. St Helen was the mother of the Emperor Constantine I, who was acclaimed emperor while in York (or Eboracum, as it was then known) in the early 4th century.

The church is mid-12th century and the doorway is particularly fine, with a set of five concentric romanesque arches leading the eye, and the visitor, down a tunnel into the church. This is a simple but brilliant use of perspective in architecture.

When we look at carvings like this, it is far too easy to patronise the past and assume they could carve faces as well as us. (Or, perhaps worse, to think they are presenting some sort of alien visitor!) But what we should feel is ignorance: we struggle to understand their conventions of depiction. How would a 12th century resident of Stillingfleet have seen this? Would it be scary or benign? An odd-looking face or a normal one?