Saturday, February 10, 2018

Southwell, Nottinghamshire


February carvery (2)

For the next of my short posts showing medieval church carvings, an example from the best place of all to see this sort of thing: the chapter house at Southwell Minster. This is one of the great medieval rooms, a feast of carving, much of it very realistic depictions of leaves. Ever since Nikolaus Pevsner worse his little book about them (The Leaves of Southwell), they’ve been known among architecture buffs. But Southwell is not a major tourist centre, and Southwell Minster is one of our quietest major churches.

I’ve chosen an example from above one of the seats ranged around the wall. Not a Green Man with foliage coming out of his mouth or nostrils, but a face encircled with leaves. A beautiful way to fill up this space above the arch, and one of the best preserved of the carvings in Southwell’s chapter house. A real delicacy from the carvery.

2 comments:

Stephen Barker said...

For anyone visiting Southwell there is also the Work House which is now in the ownership of the National Trust by way of a contrast.

bazza said...

It's beautiful. Not much more I can say!
CLICK HERE for Bazza’s tenebrific Blog ‘To Discover Ice’