Gothic

Baptism of Christ fresco

This fresco by Fra Angelico, painted between 1438 and 1443 for the Dominican monastery of San Marco, presents the Baptism of Christ with the clarity, stillness, and devotional intensity characteristic of the artist’s mature period. Set against a serene, winding Jordan River and a stark, mountainous landscape, the composition emphasises the humility of the moment and the contemplative ethos of the monastery for which it was made.

Tomb of Bishop Giles de Bridport

This finely carved effigy represents a 13th-century bishop, shown lying in state with hands raised in prayer. The figure is sculpted from dark Purbeck marble, a material much used in English cathedrals of the period. The bishop is depicted wearing liturgical vestments, including the mitre and chasuble, and rests beneath an elaborately canopied tomb.

This mid 13th century tomb of Bishop Walter de Cantelupe (d1266) is made of Purbeck marble. The relief of the effigy is more rounded than that of the nearby tomb of his predecessor the bishop of Worcester William de Blois (d1236) which is still in the Romanesque style and shows the development to the more rounded forms of the early Gothic.

Pages

Subscribe to Gothic