Terrified Man
Detail of a panel from the Apocalypse sequence that fills the larger part of the great east window of York Minster, photographed ex-situ following restoration.
The east window at York is one of wonders of gothic art and the largest medieval window in existance. It's original glazing, comprising 119 narrative scenes from the Old Testament and the Apocalypse, is as good as complete. It was created by the workshop of John Thornton of Coventry in 1405-8 (at a cost of around £56!).
Though the Minster's original glazing is unusually well preserved (by English standards) there has been considerably loss of clarity through the centuries of repair and patching which have resulted in heavier leadwork, intruded pieces of infill and extra leads (often across faces) where breakages have occured, often reducing the image to a confusing mosaic patchwork, difficult to decipher from ground level.
The latest restoration by the York Glazier's Trust aims to restore some of this lost legibility using modern conservation techniques and research by sensitive releading of each panel,and removing disfiguring insertions to give back some of the clarity and brilliance it's original form possessed in order to be read from a distance (a similar process has just been completed on the nearby St William window (also by Thornton) where comparison between pre and post restoration photos show what an enormous success the project has been).
Storing the World's largest medieval window has prooved a challenge, at first all 119 panels (with almost as many tracery pieces) where stored in crates in the Minster's stoneyard, until late 2009 when fire broke out in the rooms above, necessitating the evacuation of the massive window and rescuing it from what could have been the biggest loss to our national heritage since the Civil War! Happily all was saved from danger and is now stored within the Minster for the remainder of the project.
A few panels have been temporarily displayed at ground level in the cathedral allowing close-up detailed views of images normally only visible with the aid of binoculars
Terrified Man
Detail of a panel from the Apocalypse sequence that fills the larger part of the great east window of York Minster, photographed ex-situ following restoration.
The east window at York is one of wonders of gothic art and the largest medieval window in existance. It's original glazing, comprising 119 narrative scenes from the Old Testament and the Apocalypse, is as good as complete. It was created by the workshop of John Thornton of Coventry in 1405-8 (at a cost of around £56!).
Though the Minster's original glazing is unusually well preserved (by English standards) there has been considerably loss of clarity through the centuries of repair and patching which have resulted in heavier leadwork, intruded pieces of infill and extra leads (often across faces) where breakages have occured, often reducing the image to a confusing mosaic patchwork, difficult to decipher from ground level.
The latest restoration by the York Glazier's Trust aims to restore some of this lost legibility using modern conservation techniques and research by sensitive releading of each panel,and removing disfiguring insertions to give back some of the clarity and brilliance it's original form possessed in order to be read from a distance (a similar process has just been completed on the nearby St William window (also by Thornton) where comparison between pre and post restoration photos show what an enormous success the project has been).
Storing the World's largest medieval window has prooved a challenge, at first all 119 panels (with almost as many tracery pieces) where stored in crates in the Minster's stoneyard, until late 2009 when fire broke out in the rooms above, necessitating the evacuation of the massive window and rescuing it from what could have been the biggest loss to our national heritage since the Civil War! Happily all was saved from danger and is now stored within the Minster for the remainder of the project.
A few panels have been temporarily displayed at ground level in the cathedral allowing close-up detailed views of images normally only visible with the aid of binoculars