Visitors enjoy Canterbury cathedral's celebrated stained glass at ground level
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Version 0 of 1. Some of the oldest stained glass windows in the world, their glowing, 800-year-old detail normally visible only to passing pigeons, have temporarily come to ground level at Canterbury cathedral, while the massive window that is their normal home is rebuilt. The style of one of the anonymous medieval artists who worked on the glass is so distinctive, in the animation of the figure and the elegant folds of his drapery, that he is known as the Master of Methuselah, and his work has been identified in several windows on the continent. In the bible, Methuselah was the oldest man who ever lived, dying at the age of 969 just before Noah’s flood – but in Canterbury he is a young man, looking slightly anxiously to one side and stroking his luxuriant curly beard. We have an extraordinary opportunity to look at these figures in such detail – they will never be seen like this again “These are real works of art, not just any old figure of a man,” said Leonie Seliger, director of the cathedral’s glass studio. “Methuselah is so wonderful, I could look at him forever. I know these windows so well now, but every time I look at them I see something new. “This enormous carpet of glowing colour is some of the oldest and most extensive stained glass in Europe – and so in the world. It was an appalling moment when we discovered that they would all have to be taken down, but it has given us an extraordinary opportunity to look at these figures in such detail – they will never be seen like this again,” Seliger said. The glass could have been lost forever if the great south window, which has held it for the past three centuries, had collapsed. The first warning came just before Christmas 2009, when a large piece of carved stone fell from the window surround, fortunately without injuring anyone. Although it has been repaired many times – with the mixture of types of stone and mortars adding to its problems – the huge window dates back to the 1420s. It was at the edge of what was technically possible when built, 16.8m tall and 7.6m wide, but over the centuries the entire building has moved slightly, tipping the window forward and sideways. Iron cramps and bars intended to strengthen it were also corroding and fracturing the stone. When structural engineers moved in to study the damage, their verdict was that the entire window was in danger of collapse. “We could have done a quick fix repair that would have kept it going for 25 years,” Seliger said, “But we have a responsibility to this wonderful building. It is costing a fortune, but this time we hope the window will be sound for at least another 200 years.” At a cost of £2.25m – on top of a major conservation programme that was already underway – almost all the stonework is being replaced, with tonnes of stone brought from France like the original. Some of the individual blocks, finished by hand on site, weigh up to half a tonne. The window is scheduled to be ready for the glass to be reinstated next year. Meanwhile an exhibition opens on Monday with 21 of the 43 surviving figures displayed in a timber tower lit from inside with LED bulbs, built inside the Chapter House. The windows date from the late 12th and early 13th centuries, but Seliger believes that some of the figures are even older. The cathedral was already famous for its stained glass before a disastrous fire in 1174, and she believes that differences in colour and style suggest that some of the glass survived and was re-used. Related: Heavenly illumination: The science and magic of stained glass | Andy Connelly Originally there were 86 figures of the ancestors of Christ, installed in the clerestory high above the choir. Half, including his mother Mary, the only woman, had decayed or been destroyed by iconoclasts by the late 17th century, when the survivors were moved to fill the south window. “They have been companions in our studio for so long now,” Seliger said. “I will miss them terribly when they are gone. Look at Noah, the folds of his gown so flowing and agitated that I wonder if they were meant it to look like the rising waters of the flood – or have I looked at them too much, am I beginning to imagine things?” |