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Observations on Some Medieval Glass in York Minster

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Summary

A note on some twelfth- and fourteenth-century stained glass in York Minster, all reused, suggests that the early glass dates to 1175–1200 and was in the Norman choir, and that it was removed before the present choir was started in 1361. The fourteenth-century glass, often dated to c. 1380, can be dated to 1330-9 by stylistic parallels in York Minster, local churches, and at Rouen, and by comparisons with manuscripts and monumental brasses. It is further suggested that this glass was inserted into the Norman choir c. 1335, perhaps as part of a campaign to focus greater attention on St. William, and the old glass relegated to the nave clerestorey and, slightly later, to the vestibule.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1971

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References

page 86 note 1 Two windows in the north aisle, one in the south aisle, and two in the south clerestorey. The glass does not fit the windows and is all clearly intruded. Numerous fragments of this glass, taken probably from a third clerestorey window and used as patchings in the great east window after the fire in 1829, are now incorporated into the second window from the west in the south aisle of the nave (Friends Annual Report. 1951, 32).

page 86 note 2 I am indebted to the Dean and Chapter for permission to photograph the glass, most of it in situ. and to Mr. Peter Gibson, Superintendent of the York Glaziers Trust, for facilitating the taking of pls. XVIb and XIXb in the workshop. I would also like to thank Dr. Eric Gee and Mr. John Harvey for helpful discussions on the problems dealt with here. Some of the research on which this article is based was carried out for the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England). I am grateful to the Commissioners, to whom I am indebted for pl. XVa, for permission to make use of the results of this research.

page 86 note 3 See for the clerestorey pl. XVa, and for the vestibule pl. XXa. The clerestorey panel has been identified by Dr. P. A. Newton as a scene from one of the miracles of St. Nicholas. A similar scene is frequently portrayed in the life of St. Bavon of Ghent (L. Réau, Iconographie de l' Art Chrétien. iii, pt. I, 189).

page 86 note 4 Arch. J. xxii (1915), 37–48.

page 86 note 5 C. Woodforde, English Stained and Painted Glass. 1954, 1.

page 87 note 1 Arch. J. cxi (1954), 240. Westlake assigned the glass to Roger, but perversely put it into the west end of Thomas' nave (A History of Design in Painted Glass. i, 1882, 43–4).

page 87 note 2 York Minster Library, L. I. 6.

page 87 note 3 Historians of the Church of York (Rolls Series), ii, 426. The implication is that the old choir was still in regular use—and so fully glazed—until that date. I am indebted to Mr. John Harvey for drawing my attention to the significance of this entry.

page 87 note 4 See the odd entry of 1345 in the Fabric Rolls about scaffolding equipment left to rot at the west end (Surtees Soc. 35, 163).

page 87 note 5 J. H. Harvey, ‘The Tracing Floor in York Minster’, in Friends Annual Report. 1968, 6.

page 88 note 1 Y.A.J. xxxix (1956), 91–118.

page 88 note 2 Harrison, F., The Painted Glass of York 1927,119.Google Scholar

page 88 note 3 Op. cit.. 116.

page 88 note 4 Op. cit.. 117.

page 88 note 5 Op. cit.. 80.

page 88 note 6 Ant. J. xxx (1950), 182.

page 88 note 7 Friends Annual Report. 1953, 26.

page 88 note 8 Ibid., 30.

page 88 note 9 Op. cit.. ii, 32.

page 88 note 10 Quoted Ibid.

page 88 note 11 Now reset in the north transept of the Minster.

page 88 note 12 Skaife ‘Civic Officials’, MS in York Reference Library.

page 88 note 13 The scene in pl. XVIIb from which this diaper is illustrated is always identified as The Presentation in the Temple. It is not impossible that it represents The Circumcision.

page 89 note 1 Illustrated in the Catalogue of Rubbings of Brasses and Incised Slabs. V. & A. Museum, 1929, pl. 53.

page 89 note 2 Ibid.. pl. 4.

page 89 note 3 J. Lafond, Les Vitraux de l' ancienne abbaye de Jumièges. N. D. (c. 1954), figs. 1, 2, and 3.

page 89 note 4 See generally D. D. Egbert, The Tickhill Psalter and Related Manuscripts. New York Public Library, 1940, and Sir George Warner, Queen Mary's Psalter. British Museum, 1912. The latter psalter is full of examples.

page 89 note 5 Date disputed, but probably between 1310 and 1315.

page 89 note 6 Le Vitrail Français. 1958, pl. 123.

page 89 note 7 Ibid.. pl. 135.

page 89 note 8 The parallel is even closer than appears, as one of the clerestorey scenes, usually identified as The Ascension, is most probably itself a Pentecost scene (pl. XVb).

page 90 note 1 They are appearing at Gloucester and Tewkesbury about this time. They would be known in York before this as they appear for special reasons in Bridlington nave c. 1290. Hence probably their appearance as miniature details in glass of the nave aisles in the Minster.

page 90 note 2 Friends Annual Report. 1953, 26.

page 90 note 3 Willis, R., ‘The Architectural History of York Minster’, in Proc. Arch. Inst. 1846Google Scholar; W. R. Lethaby, op. cit.. 44–5; D. M. Mitchell in York Minster and its problem. York Minster Bookshop (c. 1969), 18–19.

page 90 note 4 Op. cit.. 91–2. To his list may be added a restored panel now in the south aisle of the nave. This was identified as Joachim in the Wilderness by Milner-White in Burlington Magazine. April 1952, III and pl. 25, and Woodforde (op. cit.. pl. 16), but more probably represents The Angel appearing to the Shepherds (pl. XVIb).

page 90 note 5 Robertus Ketelbarn (1324) and Johannes de Holtby (1329). The entries are in Surtees Soc. 96.

page 90 note 6 Y.A.S. Record Series. lxxiv (1929), 165.

page 91 note 1 Le Vitrail Français. 1958, pi. 134.

page 91 note 2 ‘Lego fabricae novi chori ecclesiae Cathedralis Ebor. xx li sterlingorum, ita quod incipiant opus infra annum effectualiter, prout saepius dixi Domino Thomae de Loudham et Thomae de Patenham’, (Reg. Zouche, Borthwick Institute, f. 335v).

page 91 note 3 The names are variously written as Loudham or Ludham, and Patenham, Pacenham or Pakenham.

page 91 note 4 B. Jones, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541. vi, Northern Province, 1963, 6.

page 91 note 5 Sampson and Ludham both died in the summer of 1349, and Pacenham c. 1350. Ludham certainly died of the plague (Y.A.S. Record Series. lxxvi (1930), 171), and probably both Sampson and Pacenham were also victims.

page 91 note 6 As the Chapter said in 1361, ‘antiquus chorus qui respectu pulchritudinis navis ecclesiae videbatur pluribus nimis rudis’, quoted by Willis, op. cit. 31.

page 91 note 7 Died in 1154, buried in the nave, and canonised by Pope Honorius III in 1227.

page 92 note 1 Historians of the Church of York (Rolls Series), ii, 417.

page 92 note 2 He died in 1340. His voluminous register, covering a vital period of York history, remains almost entirely unpublished. See Rosalind M. T. Hill, The Labourer in the Vineyard. Borthwick Paper 35, 1968, and David Robinson, Beneficed Clergy in Cleveland and the East Riding. 1306–1340, Borthwick Paper 37, 1969.

page 92 note 3 Reg. Melton, Borthwick Institute, R. I. 9, f. 81.

page 92 note 4 Ibid.. f. 79v

page 92 note 5 J. A. Knowles in Essays in the History of the York School of Glass-Painting. 1936, 71, suggested that this glass was of later date than that in the west window of the nave, but the stylistic and documentary evidence is clearly against him. The eighteenth-century kneeling figures in the middle lights of these two windows no doubt replace the original donor figures, but no identifying inscriptions survive.