Thirteenth-century Wall Paintings Of Salisbury Cathedral: Art, Liturgy, And Reform

Although Salisbury Cathedral is one of the most famous surviving buildings from medieval Europe, the monumental cycle of vault paintings which adorns the eastern arm has not received the attention it deserves. Here, for the first time, the wall-paintings are considered fully, and set properly within the architectural and liturgical contexts of the Cathedral church, which was designed as the flagship of thirteenth-century church reform. The author argues that they were an integral component of the cathedral church as it was planned out before 1220, and that they were designed to complement and inform the new liturgical rite, the Use of Sarum. In contrast to a tradition that considered Salisbury's response to reform to be an ascetic one, then, this book shows that the painting, architecture, and liturgy of the cathedral were geared to providing a highly sensory, emotive and transformative religious experience for Salisbury's secular canons. MATTHEW M. REEVE is Assistant Professor of Art History at Carleton University.