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
From "the High" we enter All Souls' College, undaunted by the scathing
comment of Humphrey Prideaux in 1674, that "All Souls' is a scandalous
place and full of fast gentlemen." Without stopping to remark the beauty
of the full-domed Radcliffe Library, rising beyond the graceful stone
screen that walls in the westerly side of All Souls' inner quadrangle,
we press on to the chapel at the further end. We shall not spend much
time over the windows of the chapel proper, for they contain nothing of
interest, but for this there is ample compensation in the splendid
display all about the antechapel that opens off to the west. It is true
that some of the panels have been restored, but this has been done so
judiciously and patterned so closely after the originals that it is not
only no detriment, but, on the contrary, enables us to enjoy a completed
whole. As was to be expected, figures within canopies meet our eyes on
all sides. Owing to the date of their manufacture, the depicted
architecture of the shrines is very elaborately worked out. Pedestals
are provided, and in the westerly embrasures we find small supplemental
and supporting canopies on each side of the principal ones, which
latter, however, alone contain figures. These western lights show more
restoration than the others. There is a great deal of red and blue
everywhere, not only in the backgrounds, but even in the pedestals
below. The four large windows (each containing a double row of three
lancets) in the easterly wall are, perhaps, more interesting than their
more elaborate neighbours. Especially note, in the one just north of the
choir entrance, the charming group of Salome and two children in the
lowest panel on the left. Most pleasing of all is the scene of St. Mary,
with two children in her arms and two more at her feet, in the
right-hand lowest panel of the most northerly of these east windows. The
glass here is so conveniently placed as to afford every facility for
studying details, thus preparing us admirably for the highly interesting
tour upon which we are about to set out.
FAIRFORD
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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