For once, not very impressed. Perhaps there was something wrong with the dull afternoon light. Entering by the door at the northwestern end of the nave, one was struck by the heaviness of the ceiling of the nave, with its heavy white stone arches, rather too flat, with red brick panels in between. Not inspiring at all.
Generally, a great deal of white stone, rather plain, although we liked the way that the masons had been given some license in the matter of the capitals to the pilasters of the arcading in the aisles, with no two seeming to be quite the same - although the license may not have amounted to more than being allowed to choose from one of the twenty patterns available.
But there were some handsome vistas, for example, looking down the aisles to the small stained glass windows at the ends. Catholics do know how to make use of light. And there were some handsome, isolated ornaments, for example, the Barbarossa corona, the high altar, the painting of the tower ceiling and the font.
The lady chapel was almost impressive, but rather spoiled by what was for me the ugly stained glass, particular the large east window with its large head of Christ. So while it is admirable that churches should commission work from contemporary artists, it is a pity that so much of the resulting work should ugly in much the same way and I have yet to work out a plausible story about why this should be. With one exception springing to mind being Eric Gill's stations of the cross in Westminster Cathedral - fine sculpture from a chap whose private life was as exotic of those of his Renaissance predecessors. Not exactly a model child of the church.
But despite all this, and despite the occasional intrusion of noisy children, a good place for quiet and reflection - so the Benedictines have scored there. Providing quiet space is not something modern builders have much interest in, despite the noisiness of the world in general. A good thing we have plenty of churches left.
And perhaps we shall do better on the next occasion. Perhaps we should try attending a service, see the building at work, as it were. Eight of them every week day and more on other days. Only one - none - being closed to the public. I did not find any reason for this at reference 1, so I shall have to ask someone with inside knowledge of these matters.
Outside, we went to visit the pond in the southern hedged garden, to find that there were not as many tadpoles as we had remembered. Although it was hard to be sure as most of them were more or less buried in the silt or sand covering the bottom of this rectilinear, concrete lined pond. The tails sticking out were the give-away.
PS: the illustration gives quite a good idea of the construction of the place, but does not capture the feel, the essence at all. But knowing the place, it will serve me as a reminder.
Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/None_(liturgy).
Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=buckfast.
No comments:
Post a Comment