Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from the Victoria and Albert Museum outlining some of the treasures kept in cathedrals. The speaker, Canon Janet Gough, had written a book in which she had invited the dean of each cathedral in England and Wales to nominate a treasure from their church and write about it. She had previously been the Director of Cathedrals and Churches for the Church of England. She took us through the eclectic pieces that were chosen from an Anglo-Saxon crypt at Ripon to a rood screen by Toy Swee Siong installed in Newport Cathedral in 2020. My favourites were the wonderful carved leaves in the Chapter House at Southwell from the late 13th century, shown here, and a touching pair of pilgrim’s boots from about 1500 which were found in a grave at Worcester.  

Enjoyable online lecture from ARTscapades with Simon Jenkin’s introducing his book on European cathedrals.   The talk was a lovely travelog through a journey Jenkins had taken around the continent to view cathedrals with fabulous illustrations. Through this he also took us loosely through the chronology of ecclesiastical architecture. He also looked at how these buildings developed via pilgrimage and crusades. I liked the fact he came up to date with the quirky Sagrada Família in Barcelona. He introduced me to lots of buildings I didn’t know and made me what to tour Europe too. I particularly loved his illustrations of sculptures on West Fronts.  

Delightful talk at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival looking at British Cathedrals and illuminated manuscripts. Simon Jenkins talked about his recent book on cathedrals taking us on a rough chronological trip through their architecture with wonderful photographs. His lack of believe sat oddly with his love of the buildings. To me the life of a cathedral is so moulded by the worship that has gone on there over the centuries that, whether you are Christian or not, that must be part of its soul. When asked what he would do with the buildings his answer was somewhat vague and seemed to imply a glorified community centre. Christopher de Hamel talked about his book about discovering illuminated manuscripts. His talk was wonderfully quirky and fun with random pictures of dogs thrown in between the wonderful ones of illuminations, so he won me over easily! His love of the subject came across and he was full of fascination detective stories.