The Function and Iconography of the Minstrels’ Gallery at Exeter Cathedral

Abstract

The Minstrels’ Gallery of Exeter cathedral has received attention in almost every major account of the church’s fabric, but has never been taken as a subject in its own right. This paper seeks to review and assess existing interpretations of the gallery’s construction and purpose, along with those of the nave’s north entrance with which the gallery’s history is inextricably linked. In addition to evaluating existing scholarship, this paper will also propose three further theses: first, that the gallery was inserted into a finished nave bay, probably in the 1350s or 1360s, which already contained a north porch built entirely by the mason Thomas of Witney on the foundations of its Romanesque predecessor; secondly, that its function was to offer an inexpensive alternative to the singing-gallery which was planned but not built in the image-screen on the cathedral’s west front; and, thirdly, that the role of the gallery and the north entrance to the nave in the Palm Sunday liturgy has influenced the iconography of the nave and gallery. This paper seeks to gather together the wealth of interest which the gallery has attracted over the last two centuries and to contribute to this exceptional history of scholarship.