Façade as Spectacle: Ritual and Ideology at Wells Cathedral (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions)

Author: Malone, Carolyn Marino

Brand: Brill

Edition: Illustrated

Format: Illustrated

Number Of Pages: 314

EAN: 9789004138407

Release Date: 07-07-2004

Package Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.5 x 1.0 inches

Languages: English

Binding: hardcover

Details: This interdisciplinary study interprets the façade of Wells Cathedral as an integral part of thirteenth-century English Church liturgy and politics. Carolyn Malone posits that architectural motifs, as signs, complemented not only the façade's sculptural program of the Church Triumphant but also its use during liturgical processions. Interpreted as an ideological construct, the façade's design is related to theological change, liturgical innovation and political strategy, as well as to the conjuncture of several major historical and cultural events of the 1220s. As part of the Church's empowering ritual, the façade expressed the reforming views of the Fourth Lateran Council, promoted Wells as the seat the diocese and proclaimed the covenant between Church and State in England following Magna Carta.