Salisbury Cathedral (Cathedral Church Of The Blessed Virgin Mary) (Part Three).

Salisbury Cathedral.

Artist: John Constable.

Date: Circa 1825.

This File: 9 December 2014.

User: Tohma

(Wikimedia Commons)

Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,
unless stated otherwise.

The West Front is of the Screen-type, clearly deriving from that at Wells. It is composed of a Stair Turret at each extremity, with two niched Buttresses nearer the centre line supporting the large central Triple Window. 

The Stair Turrets are topped with Spirelets, and the central section is topped by a Gable, which contains four Lancet Windows, topped by two round Quatrefoil Windows, surmounted by a Mandorla containing Christ in Majesty. 

At Ground Level, there is a Principal Door flanked by two smaller Doors. The whole is highly decorated with Quatrefoil motifs, Columns, Trefoil motifs and bands of Diapering.

Salisbury Cathedral’s Great West Front.

Photo: 27 August 2017.

Source: Own work.

Author: Chauhan.shweta14

(Wikimedia Commons)

The West Front was almost certainly constructed at the same time as the Cathedral.[20] This is apparent from the way in which the Windows coincide with the interior spaces. 

The entire façade is about 108 feet (thirty-three metres) high and wide. It lacks full-scale Towers and/or Spires, as can be seen, for example, at Wells, Lincoln, Lichfield, etc.[21] 

The façade was disparaged by Alec Clifton-Taylor, who considered it the least successful of the English Screen façades and a travesty of its prototype (Wells). He found the composition to be un-coordinated, and the Victorian statuary “poor and insipid”.[22]

Salisbury Cathedral’s North Façade.

Photo: 12 August 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Diego Delso

(Wikimedia Commons)

The West Front accommodates over 130 shallow niches of varying sizes, seventy-three of which contain a statue. The line of niches extends round the Turrets to the North, South and East faces.

There are five levels of niches (not including the Mandorla) which show, from the top, Angels and Archangels, Old Testament Patriarchs, Apostles and Evangelists, Martyrs, Doctors and Philosophers and, on the lower level, Royalty, Priests and worthy people connected with the Cathedral. 

The majority of the statues were placed during the middle of the 19th-Century, however seven are from the 14th-Century and several have been installed within the last decade.

Salisbury Cathedral.

Photo: 7 June 2015.

Source: flickr.com

Author: JackPeasePhotography

(Wikimedia Commons)

Salisbury Cathedral is unusual for its tall and narrow Nave, which has visual accentuation from the use of Light-Grey Chilmark Stone for the Walls and dark polished Purbeck Marble for the Columns. 

It has three levels: A tall pointed Arcade, an open Gallery, and a small Clerestory.[23] Lined up between the Pillars are notable tombs, such as that of William Longespée, half-brother of King John and the illegitimate son of King Henry II, who was the first person to be buried in the Cathedral.[24]

Another unusual feature of the Nave is an unconventional modern Font, installed in September 2008.[25] Designed by the water sculptor William Pye, it is the largest working Font in any British Cathedral, and replaced an earlier portable neo-Gothic Victorian Font.

PART FOUR FOLLOWS.