Wood Carvings in English Churches: I. Stalls and Tabernacle Work. II. Bishop's Thrones and Chancel Chairs. — John Shaqi
Wood Carvings in English Churches: I. Stalls and Tabernacle Work. II. Bishop's Thrones and Chancel Chairs.Bond, Francis
History
Wood Carvings in English Churches: I. Stalls and Tabernacle Work. II. Bishop's Thrones and Chancel Chairs.
Bond, Francis
Choir stalls; Church decoration and ornament; Wood-carving
{72} All the larger stallwork of the fifteenth century was, as we have
seen, designed in two stories, rising into spirelets and pinnacles; at
Windsor the double story, the spirelet and the pinnacle are all alike
lacking. It is true that the original canopies were designed quite as much
for the Knights of the Garter as for the Windsor Canons, and in the case of
the former the design had to be accommodated to provide supports for the
knights' helmets, mantles and swords; nevertheless this might have been
accomplished without utterly breaking away from current design. The Windsor
design, so far as English work goes, has no ancestry; its origin no doubt
is to be found in the Netherlands. The Windsor stalls have been much
tampered with. As Hollar's engraving in Ashmole's _Institution of the Order
of the Garter_ (1672) shews, over the westernmost bay on either side of the
choir the canopies contained imagery and had a horizontal cresting; and all
the other canopies consisted alternately of towers and spirelets; the
knights being seated under the towers and the canons under the spirelets;
but since the enlargement of the Order in 1786 all the spirelets have been
converted into towers (71). All these towers are surmounted by wooden
busts, of which the earliest go back to the time of Edward IV.; on the bust
were placed the knight's helmet, crest and mantlings, which hid the busts
from view; lower down, in front, hung his sword; banners were not added
till a later period. At first the real sword and helm were put up; later,
they were theatrical properties.
[Illustration: Bishop Langton's Chapel]
In Winchester cathedral is stallwork of rare beauty in the Lady Chapel,
which was built in the time of Bishop Courtenay, 1486-1492. In some of its
details it resembles the Windsor stalls, which were completed in 1483; it
is therefore feasible that some of the Windsor carvers went on to
Winchester (73). South of the Lady Chapel is the chantry chapel of Bishop
Langton, 1493-1500, where also the screen and coved panelling are of great
excellence (72); there are no stalls. {73}
[Illustration: Winchester Cathedral] [Illustration: Westminster Abbey]
{74}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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