Image and Devotion in Durham Cathedral Priory and York Minster c.1300-c.1540: New Contexts, New Perspectives

Religious images in various media, especially three-dimensional sculpture, were usually an important component of the physical topographies and devotional practices within ecclesiastical institutions during the period c.1300-c.1540. So far, discussion of these images has largely focused on continental contexts and on the English parochial context. This thesis addresses the English cathedral context in detail, providing a close reading of the images at two contrasting institutions in the north of England: Durham cathedral priory and York Minster. Unlike the continent, where there are rich survivals of medieval images, investigation of the English context is rendered more difficult by the lack of extant objects. Part One therefore uses primarily documentary sources to build up the image-topographies of both institutions. Part Two analyses aspects of these images comparatively, incorporating further comparison with those in other English cathedrals, great abbeys, and the parochial context, as well as continental cathedrals. It explores the connections between images and those who worshipped in these cathedral churches, the relationships that could be constructed between images, and between images and other sacred objects, especially saints’ shrines. This thesis therefore presents a new art-historical reading of these interiors and their users, and demonstrates the importance of the religious image in the physical and imaginative spaces within the late medieval English cathedral.