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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page research paper that describes and explores the iconography of the West Front of Wells Cathedral in England. The writer argues that an iconography motivated the overall design of the famous West Front but that the precise meaning of its six hundred plus sculptures is open to interpretation by scholars. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khweca.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
In other words, the "sculptural and pictorial embellishments" of the planned cathedral had to fit into an "iconography or symbolic program," as well as the "overall architectonic plan" (Fleming,
1974, p. 11). That an iconography motivated the overall design of the famous West Front of Wells Cathedral is quite evident according to experts, however, the precise meaning of
its six hundred plus sculptures is open to interpretation by scholars. On first seeing the West Front, Pevsner and Metcalf (1985) assert that the fact that the West
Front had a different designer from the rest of the cathedral is immediately evident, as its "spirit is entirely different" (p. 297). Where the "Wells" style is characterized by rounded
forms set against nobly sheer surfaces, the West Front is characterized by "harsh uprights and horizontals" (Pevsner and Metcalf, 1985, p. 297). At one time, the West Front included a
hundred and fifty life-size statues or larger (Van Rensselaer, 1896). These likenesses were of kings and queens, and princes and warriors, of angels, apostles, saints, martyrs, missionaries, and bishops, most
of them actual or imagine portraits" (Van Rensselaer, 1896, p. 308). The lowest tier of arches appears to have been filled with figures of those who had played a role
in early Christianity. This group includes statutes of "St. Augustine...St. Paul, (and) St. Joseph of Arimathea (Van Rensselaer, 1896, p. 308). Atop this row of statuary, according to Van Rensselaer,
there is a "line of singing angels, and then a line of medallions with subjects from the Old Testament on one side of the central door, and from the New
Testament on the other, separated above the door by a niche with a Coronation of the Virgin" (1896, p. 308). The fourth and fifth tiers of the West
...