English Cathedrals Illustrated: Second and Revised Edition — John Shaqi
English Cathedrals Illustrated: Second and Revised EditionBond, Francis
History
English Cathedrals Illustrated: Second and Revised Edition
Bond, Francis
Cathedrals -- England; Cathedrals -- Wales
More important even than the architecture is the ancient glass.
Canterbury and York are the great treasure-houses of stained-glass:
Canterbury for early thirteenth-century glass, York for
fourteenth-century glass. The student should take with him to Canterbury
Mr. Lewis Day’s work on Stained Glass. Three of the windows in the
Trinity chapel illustrate the miracles of St. Thomas. On the north side,
in the lower group of the eastern window, is the story of a child (1)
who falls into the Medway, (2) the other boys tell his parents, (3) the
body is drawn out of the water, _cætera desunt_. In the next group is the
story of a boy who was brought to life by a draught of water mixed with
the saint’s blood. But the father omitted to pay the offerings promised
to the saint. In the central medallion another son lies dead, struck by
the sword of St. Thomas, who is seen through the ceiling. In another
group a woman is being flagellated by way of penance. Two other windows
describe miracles of healing: in a medallion in the lower part of the
western window a madman comes up, “_amens accedit_,” beaten with sticks
and bound; in the next he is cured, “_sanus recedit_.” In one is the
only representation extant of the later shrine; the martyr, in a mauve
vestment, appears in a vision to Benedict below. On the shrine is the
box, as described by Erasmus, which contained the archbishop’s sudary.
In the east window of the corona is portrayed Christ’s Passion; in the
two windows of the north aisle are types and antitypes from the Old and
New Testaments; among them the three Magi, all asleep in one bed. The
circular window in the north-east transept also contains the original
glass; and many fragments are seen elsewhere.
[Illustration: SOUTH OF CHOIR]
III. LANCET.—For this period (1190-1245) there is nothing to show except
the north wall of the Cloister, and a lovely doorway in the south-east
corner of the Cloister, cruelly hacked about by the vandals who built the
cloister-vault.
IV. To the GEOMETRICAL period (1245-1315) belongs the Chapter-house up to
the sills of the windows, and the screens north and south of the choir.
A fine window with Kentish tracery was inserted in St. Anselm’s chapel.
V. Of CURVILINEAR work (1315-1360) there is no trace except some
diaper-work in the choir, which may have adorned the shrine of St.
Dunstan, who was buried at the south end of the high altar.
[Illustration: EAST TRANSEPT.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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