York Minster -- Quire South Aisle

 

Visited 18-20 March, 2006

The Quire (Choir) South Aisle is part of the newest part of the Minster, the eastern side built in the perpendicular Gothic style between 1361 and 1472.  As you can see in the photo below looking down the aisle to the All Saints Chapel at the very end, circles have disappeared from the windows and vertical lines are stronger. 

(Ignore the two-headed guy in green, just a modern gargoyle leaving after a hard day of hanging around a medieval cathedral. )

The south quire aisle primarily stores banners, crosses, and other paraphernalia used in liturgical processions.  In addition, like the northern aisle, it houses elaborate tombs, some of them fairly recent. (Recall that in 1730 most tombs were removed when the floor was redone).   Below is the tomb of the Finches who died in the 18th century.  Henry Finch was Dean of the Minster.  In contrast to this marble neo-classic tomb, to the left is one of the polychromatic memorials.

 

Here's one of the more elaborate polychromatic memorials of Sir William Gee, who died in 1611, with his two wives (probably not simultaneous) and his six children. 

The tomb below appears to be that of John Dolben, the Archbishop of York from 1683-1686.  Which is more cherubic -- the angels above or the reclining prelate below?

Here's a modern monument sticking out quite low (you have to stoop down to see into it).  It honors the miners of the Barnsley Main Seam, a large coal mine in the York area.  Supposedly it honors the labors of the working class who helped build the cathedral.  It is quite out-of-place among the elegant (and often overstated) tombs here.  Not that we'd take any digs at the artistic consistency of south aisle memorials; that would be unseemly.

See More Minster Pictures: Previous: Chapter House | Next: The Quire | York Minster Picture Index

 

Created on 19 September 2006
For more narrative on York, see our summary web page by clicking here.

 


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