Stained Glass Tours in EnglandSherrill, Charles Hitchcock
History
Stained Glass Tours in England
Sherrill, Charles Hitchcock
Cathedrals -- England; England -- Description and travel; Glass painting and staining -- England
mantles of green and ruby and gold, like Arab chiefs; figures such as
some artists in the last Crusading host under Edward might have seen and
designed, and so different from the conventional portraiture of Bible
characters." Although this window is less lofty than the similar one at
Bristol, it does not seem so incomplete and cut off, because we have
here the recumbent figure of Jesse across the bottom of the five central
lancets, a feature lacking at Bristol. Another point of difference is
that the convolutions of the vine do not here enclose the seventeen
figures of the descendants, but instead they stand under canopies, of
which, however, only the topmost ones have pinnacles. The broad borders
have the same design throughout, viz., gold crowns alternated with
colour, which changes from red to blue in each successive lancet. The
backgrounds within the canopies also alternate red and blue, always
contrasting with the colour outside. Almost all the small personages
are draped in either green or yellow, and four have undergarments of
red. Though their colouring is splendid, the figures are rather too
crowded. The two most easterly lights on each side of the chancel are
contemporary with the east window--they are each of three lancets
and contain single figures, occupying about half the height of the
embrasure, and have no pedestals below them. So similar is the treatment
here to that at Bristol that it seems safe to assign the same date to
both (1320). The tracery lights around the choir ambulatory still retain
their Decorated glazing. To the right and left just before we enter the
Lady chapel are single windows containing fragments of ancient glass.
The Lady chapel itself is finely illuminated by five large windows of
five lancets each containing figure and canopy work. One should remark
the unique pedestals consisting of golden lions or bears surmounted by
the characteristic ball-flower ornament. Very interesting, also, are the
tracery lights, which consist of pyramids of small trefoil openings,
four at the base, then three, then two, then one. They are reminiscent
of the tracery lights of the Lichfield Lady chapel, but here the glazier
has been more adroit in the use of his opportunities. Instead of putting
a head alone in each opening, he has availed himself of the broader
space at the bottom to put in the shoulders as well. These little busts
adjust themselves admirably to the trefoils. Although the glass which
once filled the octagonal chapter-house is all gone save that up in the
traceries, those remnants are of interest because the disposal of the
designs against the red backgrounds is reminiscent of the work at
Tewkesbury and Gloucester. The great west window of the nave has
seventeenth and eighteenth century glass at the sides, and in the centre
a fine sixteenth century French panel showing the beheading of St. John.
This bears the date 1507 and a Gascon inscription, and was bought by
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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