Façade as Spectacle: Ritual and Ideology at Wells Cathedral

This interdisciplinary study interprets the façade of Wells Cathedral as an integral part of thirteenth-century English Church liturgy and politics. Carolyn Malone posits that architectural motifs, as signs, complemented not only the façade’s sculptural program of the Church Triumphant but also its use during liturgical processions. Interpreted as an ideological construct, the façade’s design is related to theological change, liturgical innovation and political strategy, as well as to the conjuncture of several major historical and cultural events of the 1220s. As part of the Church’s empowering ritual, the façade expressed the reforming views of the Fourth Lateran Council, promoted Wells as the seat the diocese and proclaimed the covenant between Church and State in England following Magna Carta.

'...this is a book which will need to be consulted by all those interested in Wells cathedral and English façade design...' Paul Williamson, The Burlington Magazine, 2005. 'In the breadth of its discussion of the religious, social, and political context for the remarkable facade at Wells, there is much in this book to provide food for thought and for debate...In terms of setting this enigmatic facade into its historical context, this is the fullest study to date and one that addresses a number of important issues of historical interpretation. It is a commendably bold attempt to collate diverse strands of evidence' Peter Draper, Speculum, 2006.

Carolyn Marino Malone, Ph.D. (1973), History of Art and Medieval Studies, University of California, Berkeley, is Associate Professor in the History of Art, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She has published on other English topics and Saint-Bénigne in Dijon, France.