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)
At the end of the north choir aisle is the St. Cecilia window, presented
in honour of the patroness of music by Dr. Corfe, a former organist,
in 1873. In the centre light the saint is represented playing her regal
or small hand-organ; two angels holding other musical instruments, with
palms in their hands, stand by her. The drapery is wrought in white glass,
the angels have pale blue wings, and the flesh tints matted over with red
tell warm against the drapery. In the lower panels are three scenes from
her life: "Here St. Cecilia teaches her husband," "Here an angel of the
Lord teaches St. Cecilia," "Here St. Cecilia wins a heavenly crown;" the
saint's figure in this last panel is most touchingly drawn. These lower
panels are richer in colour than the rest, and a greater variety of tints
is introduced; but the colours are so delicate, and so skilfully blended,
that they fall in most harmoniously with the main parts of the window.
As the neighbouring window just described is full of the robust strength
of manhood, so this one, in colour as well as in design, is graceful,
delicate, and feminine. Probably it will lead to the north choir aisle
being known by the name of St. Cecilia, whose art has certainly many
votaries in Oxford. Mr. Malcolm Bell, in his monograph on Burne-Jones,
gives the following description of the St. Cecilia window:--
"A still more beautiful instance of the use of simple figures with
complicated draperies is found in the lovely St. Cecilia window, executed
in 1874-5, a companion to the 'St. Catherine,' executed in 1878, in
Christ Church Cathedral at Oxford, in which, moreover, it is enhanced
by the soberness of the colouring, which, with the exception of a few
touches of stronger hues in the lower panels, is green, and white, and
gold, symbolic of the lily of heaven, into which mediæval commentators
tortured the meaning of her name. The saint herself stands in the middle,
with attendant angels on either side, bearing the palm of martyrdom,
who hush their harmony while she plays. Below the left-hand angel,
St. Cecilia, seated on her bed, reads to her husband Valirian the lesson
of chastity. In the centre the angel brings to them the miraculous proof
of the justification of her faith which he demanded from her:
"Valirian goth home, and sint Cecilie
Withinne his chaumbre with an aungel stonde,
This aungel had of roses and of lillie
Corounes two, the which he bar in honde.
[Illustration: THE "ST. CECILIA" WINDOW, BY SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES.]
"The lilies, symbolical of virgin purity; the roses, of victory over
death. In the third, the executioner holds her by one hand as she
kneels on the floor of her bath-room, which is seen in the background,
the steam still rising in it after the ineffectual attempt to roast her
to death. With his sword raised he is about to strike the first of the
three blows which failed to cut off her head.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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