It was Lady Wildwood's suggestion that a group of us go to Canterbury on Saturday. I managed to squeeze all my necessary work either side of the date and after a couple of tasks set off. It was a cold but bright day and I was very glad of the opportunity to reacquaint myself with the Cathedral for the first time since 1986, and my friends after a bit less time.
The town of Canterbury is crying 'Slava Ukraini' along with everyone else.
I had forgotten the wonder of the Cathedral. I think its special quality lies in the dramatic disjuncture between the nave and the earlier quire, the monks' part of the church, built in a different style - the earliest Gothic architecture in England - and the fact that the crypt raises the east end up on a far higher level than the nave, so going through the tower arch and then the pulpitum is like entering a different building. It means that you can't see the whole Cathedral in one vista, and makes the layout complex, meaning it takes a bit of exploring; you can't make a simple circuit as you can in most cathedrals.
The Throne of St Augustine is deservedly charismatic, but I have never read about the Zodiac laid into the floor just to its east, in the foreground in this picture:
There is the Black Prince's aerodynamic armour. No wonder he was invincible:
I found one unmistakable image of St Catherine, in the windows of St Edward the Confessor's chapel, and another probable one, defaced (literally) on the tomb of Cardinal Morton: I think that must be the remains of the Emperor Maxentius at her feet.
The others had come by train, while I'd driven, so after I left them I popped to see St Augustine's Conduit on the east side of the city. It captured the water of a number of notable springs for the use of the Abbey not far away, though now it could do with a bit of a tidy. It also afforded me a lovely last image of the Cathedral against the setting sun.
Some beautiful pictures there, thank you. And yes, the Cathedral seems more like some sort of complex of sacred spaces - some of them very powerful - rather than a unified building. My only visit was some three years ago, and I can't really get a sense of the place in one image, like I often can with even quite complicated structures.
ReplyDeleteMy only gripe was that that the Dean or someone seems to have some sort of bee in their bonnet about having "modern art" displayed around the place, even if it's not very good. And I thought the shrine of St. Thomas Becket was spoilt by the ridiculous jagged sword sculpture. It looked like a sixth-former's attempt to design a Death metal album cover. Isn't a single 12th Century sword terrifying enough, given what we know about its use?