Norwich Cathedral, Norfolk, UK
Chantry chapel of Bishop James Goldwell †1499. South arcade of presbytery. Commissioned by Bishop Goldwell.
The siting of the chantry chapel follows that of Bishop Wakering †1425, just to the east, which was set to the south of that to Bishop Herbert beneath the altar. The date of the tomb is not documented and may have been in his life-time, rather than on his death, to coincide with his commission for the presbytery’s new high vault, which harmonizes with the clerestory commissioned a century earlier around 1382-6. In that case it might have come just after the new bay system, whose date and commissioner are not known, but occurred during Goldwell’s bishopric. This has a bearing on the controversy over the design of the chapel, argued by different contributors to the volume on the Cathedral. One is that it is a later addition which fits rather awkwardly under the arcade with a redundant canopy. The other, more persuasive, is that it was designed for the site and fits exactly the new Tudor bays of the presbytery, with a canopy, then a standard requirement in chantries, that was integral to the design, embracing not only the tomb-chest and its effigy, but the altar and those who served it. The canopy is decorated with foiled circles and lozenges to the vault and panel tracery to the sides. The damaged and vandalised figure of Bishop Goldwell, unusually wearing a processional cope, lies on the tomb-chest, with niches and nodding ogee arches. Bishop Goldwell rests his feet on a, better preserved, cheerful lion, and on the remains of another figure, atlas like lifting, perhaps the bishop’s emblem a gold well on his shoulders. The general impression of the canopy and architecture is of the predominance of the repainting of 1936, but the pattern of leaves on the cope was treated more tactfully and looks more authentic.
Bishop Goldwell, whose date of birth is not recorded, was educated at All Souls Oxford, where he was a fellow from 1441 to 1452. This was the start of a career which saw him hold a number of separate benefices in the late 1450s, archdeacon of Essex and dean of Salisbury two years later, before being consecrated bishop of Norwich in 1472. He continued to serve on Edward IV’s council until the accession of Henry VII, retiring to concentrate on his role as a conscientious bishop of Norwich. This was one of a number of chantries established by Goldwell and his executors: the others were at St Giles's Hospital, St Mary-in-the-Fields in Norwich, Great Chart in Kent, probably where he was born, whose church he had rebuilt in 1477 and All Souls College, Oxford.
Rosemary C. E. Hayes, ‘Goldwell, James (d. 1499)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, accessed 15/11/2015; Ian Atherton, Eric Fernie, Christopher Harper-Bill and Hassell Smith eds, Norwich Cathedral: Church, City and Diocese, 1096-1996, London and Rio Grande, 1996, p. 472 note 13 and p. 194
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Norwich Cathedral, Norfolk, UK
Chantry chapel of Bishop James Goldwell †1499. South arcade of presbytery. Commissioned by Bishop Goldwell.
The siting of the chantry chapel follows that of Bishop Wakering †1425, just to the east, which was set to the south of that to Bishop Herbert beneath the altar. The date of the tomb is not documented and may have been in his life-time, rather than on his death, to coincide with his commission for the presbytery’s new high vault, which harmonizes with the clerestory commissioned a century earlier around 1382-6. In that case it might have come just after the new bay system, whose date and commissioner are not known, but occurred during Goldwell’s bishopric. This has a bearing on the controversy over the design of the chapel, argued by different contributors to the volume on the Cathedral. One is that it is a later addition which fits rather awkwardly under the arcade with a redundant canopy. The other, more persuasive, is that it was designed for the site and fits exactly the new Tudor bays of the presbytery, with a canopy, then a standard requirement in chantries, that was integral to the design, embracing not only the tomb-chest and its effigy, but the altar and those who served it. The canopy is decorated with foiled circles and lozenges to the vault and panel tracery to the sides. The damaged and vandalised figure of Bishop Goldwell, unusually wearing a processional cope, lies on the tomb-chest, with niches and nodding ogee arches. Bishop Goldwell rests his feet on a, better preserved, cheerful lion, and on the remains of another figure, atlas like lifting, perhaps the bishop’s emblem a gold well on his shoulders. The general impression of the canopy and architecture is of the predominance of the repainting of 1936, but the pattern of leaves on the cope was treated more tactfully and looks more authentic.
Bishop Goldwell, whose date of birth is not recorded, was educated at All Souls Oxford, where he was a fellow from 1441 to 1452. This was the start of a career which saw him hold a number of separate benefices in the late 1450s, archdeacon of Essex and dean of Salisbury two years later, before being consecrated bishop of Norwich in 1472. He continued to serve on Edward IV’s council until the accession of Henry VII, retiring to concentrate on his role as a conscientious bishop of Norwich. This was one of a number of chantries established by Goldwell and his executors: the others were at St Giles's Hospital, St Mary-in-the-Fields in Norwich, Great Chart in Kent, probably where he was born, whose church he had rebuilt in 1477 and All Souls College, Oxford.
Rosemary C. E. Hayes, ‘Goldwell, James (d. 1499)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, accessed 15/11/2015; Ian Atherton, Eric Fernie, Christopher Harper-Bill and Hassell Smith eds, Norwich Cathedral: Church, City and Diocese, 1096-1996, London and Rio Grande, 1996, p. 472 note 13 and p. 194
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