A Stained Glass Walk in York Minster

Transcription

1 A Stained Glass Walk in York Minster Sarah Brown, Director, York Glaziers Trust York Minster is England s treasure house of stained glass, with a larger and more varied collection of windows than any other building. One hundred and twenty-eight Minster windows contain historic stained glass, dating from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries. This walk around the building will introduce some of the highlights. As you enter via the south transept door, the Minster s principal public entrance since the Middle Ages, you will exchange the bustle of the city for the tranquillity of the Minster. As you move forwards into the cavernous space under the central tower, the choir screen (c ) covered in figures of England s Kings from William the Conqueror to Henry VI is on your right. This separates the choir (begun in 1361) from the transepts and crossing (c ), the earliest part of the Gothic Minster that we see today. Straight ahead of you is one of the Minster s most famous windows, the towering Five Sisters. Five slender lancets containing silvery grisaille glass dominate the north transept. The window (c1250) is one of the largest displays of glass of this kind anywhere in Europe. 1

2 From your vantage point under the crossing, turn to the left and look down the length of the nave, one of the Minster s most impressive vistas. It is dominated by the great west window with its sinuous Gothic tracery, often called the Heart of Yorkshire. The window was the gift of Archbishop William de Melton and was made in 1339 by the glazier Robert Ketelbarn, one of only three medieval Minster glaziers whose work can be identified with certainty. It depicts the Joys of the Virgin Mary above figures of the Apostles and the medieval Bishops and Archbishops of York. In this way Archbishop de Melton associated himself with his illustrious predecessors in the See 2

3 and with Christ s Apostles. The window honours above all the Virgin Mary, the queen of heaven, who is crowned by Christ at the very top of the window. The nave of York Minster, begun in 1291, contains some of the Minster s most interesting windows, dating from the early fourteenth century and given by a variety of donors. Some of them were members of the Cathedral clergy, while others were wealthy lay people. In the north aisle is one of the best known, the gift of goldsmith, bell-founder and Mayor of York, Richard Tunnoc (d. 1330).The Bell-Founder s Window is unmistakable, with gold and silver bells hanging from the canopies and decorating the borders. In the middle of the bottom row Tunnoc offers his window to an image of St William of York whose shrine was nearby. 3

4 In the nearby Pilgrimage Window (c1330), so called because of the depiction in the main lights of a male and female pilgrim with a mounted entourage, it is the borders that detain us. Along the lower margins of the window, in a manner comparable to the borders of an illuminated manuscript, animals and birds parody human behaviour. From left to right, a fox preaches to a cock, monkeys carry a funeral bier and a monkey doctor examines a urine flask, while a sick ape is attended by a monkey-doctor. These amusing marginal details are echoed in the sculpture decorating the masonry frames around the nave aisle windows. 4

5 On the other side of the nave, in the south nave aisle, the De Mauley window, heavily restored in 1903, reminds us that the clergy of the medieval Minster were also members of some of the most powerful local baronial families. The window was the gift of Stephen de Mauley, Archdeacon of Cleveland (d.1317) who is accompanied in the bottom row of the window by his father and brothers. The De Mauleys came from Mulgrave near Doncaster and their shields also appear in stone nearby. Above the Mauley donors are scenes of martyrdom of their favourite saints, St Stephen, St Andrew and St John the Baptist. The martyrdom of St Andrew 5

6 Stained Glass is not confined to the lower windows of the nave. On either side, above our heads, the high clerestory windows of the nave contain a mixture of late 12 th - century and early 14 th -century figure panels above a display of vibrant and colourful shields of arms. In each window the arms of the King (golden leopards on a red background) are flanked by the shields of the northern nobility who fought for him in the Scottish wars of the period. A similar display of heraldry, brightly painted, is carved in the stone of the nave arcade just below the windows. 6

7 Beyond the screen of Kings that separates the nave from the eastern arm of the building is the Choir, the devotional and liturgical heart of the building, where the Minster community has worshipped for over 900 years. Climb the steps ahead and stand before the high altar. You are now standing between the two great eastern transept windows made in honour of the north of England s greatest saints. On your left is the window dedicated to the life and miracles of St William of York. On you right is the window commemorating the life and miracles of St Cuthbert of Durham. The light from the two great windows shone on the medieval high altar of the Minster which was originally located where you are now standing. Behind it stood the huge 1472 marble shrine of St William, destroyed in 1541, perhaps on the personal order of King Henry VIII who visited York in that year. The St William window was made c.1414 as the gift of the Ros family of Helmsley, and members of the family kneel reverently at the bottom of the window. Lady Beatrice de Ros 7

8 William Fitzherbert was first appointed Archbishop of York in 1145 but was opposed by the Cistercian monks of Yorkshire and was deposed in Following the death of his enemies he appealed to the Pope and in 1154 was finally consecrated archbishop in the choir of the Minster. His enjoyment of his success was short-lived, however, for almost immediately after celebrating his consecration mass, he fell ill and died on 8 June 1154, poisoned, it was believed, during the mass itself. He was buried at the east end of the nave. Records of miracles associated with William were collected in the 1220s and he was finally canonised in The shrine to which eager pilgrims flocked throughout the medieval period, is depicted numerous times in the window in the choir. The window has recently been conserved by the York Glaziers Trust. 8

9 St Cuthbert, monk and Bishop of Lindisfarne (d.687), lived a saintly and reclusive life very much in contrast to the worldly career of St William. After the Viking destruction of Lindisfarne in 875, his monks moved his relics and those of King Oswald to the safety of Durham Cathedral and he was the North of England s most popular saint. He stands in the lower register of the window holding the head of the martyred Oswald, surrounded by a veritable Who s Who of the Lancastrian court of the young King Henry VI (below), who was crowned at the age of only 8 in The young King is depicted in the window as an adult, having achieved his majority in 1437, and is accompanied by images of his father and grandfather and the greatest churchmen of his day, including Archbishop Henry Bowet of York (d.1423), Cardinal Henry Beaufort, Cardinal John Kemp, Bowet s successor as archbishop, and Thomas Langley, Bishop of Durham and formerly dean of York (d.1437), who gave the window. 9

10 Above our heads in the high clerestory windows of the choir, the gallery of historical figures continues in the clerestory windows of the choir (c1420). In a scheme probably supervised by John Thornton, the glazier responsible for the St William window and the Great East Window, the windows depict the Kings, Popes and Archbishops of greatest significance to the history of the Minster and its part in the evangelisation of the north of England. The shields of arms of those who contributed to the cost of the windows appear beneath the figures. As in the nave, the stone shields of aristocratic donors are also carved in stone below the windows. 10

11 Leave the choir via the south choir aisle. As you descend the steps from the choir into the aisle, pause for a moment and look at a refugee from an Oxford College. The New College Jesse window was installed in the Minster in the eighteenth century by the York glazier William Peckitt. Peckitt was employed by the Warden and Fellows of New College in Oxford to repair the old windows of their chapel and to make new ones. He was persuaded, very reluctantly, to accept the remains of New College s medieval west window in part payment for this work and was later able to persuade his loyal York patron, Dean John Fountayne, to accept the window. The glass had been made c1385 for one of medieval England s most prestigious stained glass patrons, William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England. The figures of Christ s ancestors and the prophets who foretold his birth are arranged in a family tree, with bright fragments of eighteenth-century glass supplied by Peckitt in order to make the window fit its new location. 11

12 Turn left and make your way to the Lady Chapel. En route you will pass another foreigner, the striking three light early 16 th -century Crucifixion window which came to England in the early 19 th century from the church of St Jean in Rouen. The window was acquired by Dean Eric Milner-White in 1952, a widely respected national expert on stained glass history who supervised the restoration of many Minster windows in the years immediately after the Second World War who gave the window to the Minster in memory of two friends. The monumental Renaissance figures are silhouetted against a rich blue background, although it is clear that the glass was made for a much narrower window. This is just one of a number of important examples of Continental stained glass acquired by the Dean. 12

13 Walk to the right and enter the Lady Chapel, built but not glazed, by It is dominated by the suspended screen that now shrouds the east end of the Minster while essential restoration and repair of the east end is completed. The printed screen, the largest digitally printed image of its kind, shows a full-scale picture of the Great East Window, now undergoing conservation in the workshops of 13

14 the York Glaziers Trust. The Great East Window was commissioned from the Coventry glass Painter John Thornton in the winter of 1405 and was to be complete by To achieve this astonishing feat, Thornton must have been assisted by other glaziers and glass-painters whose names are unknown to us, but his contract required that he should paynt the same where need required according to the Ordination of the Dean and Chapter. The window contains probably medieval Europe s largest depiction of the Apocalypse, the end of the World, as described in the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation. Conservation of the glass, last restored after the Second World War, means that the legibility of the window s complex narrative is greatly enhanced, allowing the brilliance and artistry of John Thornton and his workshop to be fully appreciated once again. Before Conservation 14

15 After Conservation Bishop Skirlaw of Durham, the donor of the window, was depicted at the bottom of the window kneeling before Christ at the Last Judgement, but he died in 1406 and did not live to see his wonderful gift completed. 15

16 The chapter house and its vestibule were built and glazed in the period c No documents explain the circumstances of its creation, but it is an exceptional building with outstanding decoration stained glass, sculpture and painting. It was the building responsible for the introduction to York of the most cosmopolitan forms of European Gothic architecture and decoration. Pause as you pass into the vestibule and look for a moment at the windows to right and left, recently returned following conservation by the York Glaziers Trust. Some of the oldest glass in the Minster, the windows have suffered from severe corrosion due to their exposure to the elements and the atmosphere both externally and internally. 16

17 The window to the left depicts saintly kings under canopies, including St Edward the Confessor (above). On the right Old Testament prophets (Isaiah, Abraham, Moses, Daniel, Jeremiah and King David).are depicted. Despite the degradation of the glass and the loss of painted detail due to corrosion, recent conservation has improved the legibility of the windows and has revealed the astonishing brilliance of the windows and the quality of the glass-painting. Walk through this most elegant of corridors and enter the chapter house itself, passing the lovely sculpture of the Virgin and Child at the doorway, and the great wooden doors with their original 13 th -century beaten ironwork decoration in the form 17

18 of foliage and dragons. The chapter house was (and is!) the meeting place of the members of the Dean and Chapter, but also hosted other exceptional gatherings, including the Archbishop s convocations and even assemblies of Parliament in the early 14 th century. The seven great chapter house windows depict the lives and legends of those saints most revered in the devotional life of the medieval Minster (Christ himself (glass now lost), the Virgin Mary, St Peter, St Paul, St Katharine, St William of York, St Thomas Becket, St Margaret, St Nicholas, St John the Baptist and St Edmund).Such was 18

19 the importance of coloured windows to the decoration of this space, that the masons and carpenters contrived to eliminate the central column normally required to support the vault by the ingenious construction of the roof, which allowed the vault to be suspended rather than supported from below. The lives of the saints unfold in lively, small-scale narrative medallions, each one within a quatrefoil frame, the figures silhouetted against dark backgrounds. St Peter in Prison, Chapter House s2 19

20 Leave the chapter house. As you revisit the north transept, stand with the Five Sisters behind you. Another of the Minster s great vistas opens up before you. The great rose window in the south transept wall was constructed in the 13 th century but is now filled with early sixteenth-century glass, in which the white and red Tudor roses recall the union of the warring houses of Lancaster and York through the marriage of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. In 1989 the glass was imperilled by a terrible fire that caused the collapse of the south transept vault but miraculously left the window intact, albeit in need of careful conservation. 20

21 Below the rose are some of the Minster s youngest windows, Abraham and Solomon (below, 1780), Moses (1793) and St Peter (1768), all the work of William Peckitt of York, eighteenth-century England s most celebrated stained glass artist. Solomon 21

22 If this introduction has quickened your interest in stained glass conservation, why not visit the YGT s Bedern Glaziers Studio, where you will be able to see how today s craftsmen ensure that the Minster s windows will survive for centuries to come. For more information go to 22