The Cathedral Church of Oxford: A description of its fabric and a brief history of the Episcopal seeDearmer, Percy
History
The Cathedral Church of Oxford: A description of its fabric and a brief history of the Episcopal see
Dearmer, Percy
Christ Church Cathedral (Oxford, England)
One cannot but admire the spirit which has caused so many brasses to be
set up in recent years to deceased members of the House; and yet it has
become an abuse which calls for serious protest. It is now so much a
precedent that every member of the foundation should have a brass set up
to his memory at his death, that the tribute is become mechanical, and
indeed it would now be a marked slight if any don should die without a
memorial brass being erected. At this rate the cathedral will in a few
generations be entirely defaced unless the tradition be interrupted. As
it is, the brasses are all the reverse of beautiful; and, after a period
of lacquered obtrusiveness, they become leprous, and afterwards black.
A modern brass, indeed, defaces a wall as much as a modern tablet. Surely
some more beautiful form of memorial could be devised. The cathedral is
in need of many things, of colour, and hangings, and furniture. Could
not those tributes of respect take in the future this more honourable
form? Then, when an inscription is necessary, the enamelled tablet, with
its endless possibilities of jewel-like colour, might be used in place
of brass or marble. Something has already been done by the erection of
the beautiful eastern windows, and the cathedral has been fortunate in
escaping an eruption of episcopal tombs; but latterly there has been
an epidemic of brasses, which makes one fear that the artist's work is
being forgotten in the temptation to set off an epitaph with a display
of Latinity.
=Glass in the Transepts=.--The great window of the north transept is by
Clayton and Bell. Mr. Tyrwhitt says of it that it "glows with all the
fires which a fervid fancy can bestow upon the inwards of the Dragon."
The glaring glass in the clerestory of the north and south transepts is
by Henri and Alfred Gérente (1854), artists famous in their day. It was
originally in the great east window (now destroyed), and must have thrown
the members of the House into a stupor when in that prominent position. As
it is, the clerestory windows are a very inappropriate place for colour,
violent enough to "scare a chameleon"; though the glass was evidently put
there as the least conspicuous position. It might now be taken out and
buried, on the chance that time and the earth may have a mellowing effect.
The half-window above the vestry in the south transept is filled with
glass, coloured to look as if it were old, by Clayton and Bell, and given
in memory of Dr. Liddon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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