Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Gloucester [2nd ed.]: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Espicopal SeeMassé, H. J. L. J. (Henri Jean Louis Joseph)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Gloucester [2nd ed.]: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Espicopal See
Massé, H. J. L. J. (Henri Jean Louis Joseph)
Gloucester Cathedral
#The Triforium of the Choir# is, perhaps, the finest triforium in
existence, and is worthy of special examination. "It occupies the space
over the ground floors of the aisles or ambulatory of the choir, and
originally extended of a like width round the east end of the Norman
Church, but at the time when the fourteenth-century work of the present
choir was executed, the whole of the east end of the old Norman choir,
with the corresponding part of the triforium, was removed in order to
make room for the existing large window, the small east chapel being
allowed to remain." (F. S. W.) The original shape of this part of the
building will be more clearly seen by reference to the chapel (D),
indicated by dotted lines on the plan, and to the extreme east chapel of
the crypt. As the means of entrance to this east chapel of the triforium
was now gone, the narrow gallery usually called the "Whispering Gallery"
was made, and carried by segmental arches, marked BB, from the
south-east to the east chapel, and from the east chapel to that on the
north-east. The external appearance of the Whispering Gallery is shown
on page 75. The casual observer frequently takes it to be a piece of
Norman work, but it is in reality the material of Norman builders very
skilfully re-used.
The triforium is reached by the staircases in the western turrets of the
two transepts and by arcaded passages passing under the great windows of
the transepts. Excellent views across the transepts are thence to be
obtained. Still better views can be got from the corner of the triforium
(near the painting of the Last Judgment), both across the organ to the
north side of the nave, down the south aisle, and also across the
choir.
The first chapel in the triforium contains two brackets with rich
canopies, and there is a very well preserved double piscina.
Ball-flowers in two rows will be found in the mouldings of the east
window. Remains of two canopies in the jambs of the windows are also to
be traced.
The massive Norman piers should be carefully studied, as the way in
which the later casing work has been applied can be more easily seen in
the triforium than elsewhere.
The picture on the west side of this part of the triforium was
discovered in 1718, against the then eastern end of the nave, underneath
the panelled wainscot at the back of the seats occupied by the clergy
when the nave was used for service.
During the last few years it has lost much of its colour; it is painted
_in tempera_ on a kind of gesso ground laid on a wooden planking nearly
an inch thick. From the size of it--viz. 9 feet 10 1/2 inches by 7 feet
7 1/4 inches--it was formerly thought to have formed part of the reredos.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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