Canterbury Cathedral: Classical Columns in the Trinity Chapel?

Abstract

In his exemplary account of Canterbury Cathedral in The Buildings of England, John Newman observed that the proportions of the Trinity Chapel constituted an improvement on those of the choir and presbytery (Figs 1, 2 and 3). This perception of improvement results from the reduced height of the Trinity Chapel piers that produces a more satisfactory balance in the design of the elevation and, more significantly, a consequential change in the proportions of the piers, which now take on the appearance of classical columns. That this classicizing appearance is intentional is manifest in the elegant attic bases, the finely carved Corinthian-style capitals and particularly in the use of polished limestones to give the effect of marble. The piers are columnar, constructed in drums of predominantly Purbeck marble of varying colours, but the conspicuous eastern piers are partly made up of two other stones which must have been imported: a smooth creamy-white peletal limestone from Caen and a rose-pink marble which has now been shown to come from the area around Tournai. The supply of these imported stones was obviously limited and must have run out as two of the piers had to be completed in Purbeck, as can be seen in Figure 3. In fact, the use of such exotic polished stone was already well established at Canterbury, having been employed by Prior Wibert as early as the 1150s in the infirmary cloister and in the undercroft to the Treasury where both Purbeck marble and onyx can be found.