The Chapel of the Guardian Angels in Winchester Cathedral

Today is the Feast of the Guardian Angels.

In 2020 I posted the Breviary Mattins readings from St Bernard of Clairvaux, together with a picture of the thirteenth century vault painting in the chapel dedicated to the Guardian Angels in the retrochoir of the cathedral at Winchester. This can be seen at St Bernard on the Guardian Angels

 

I had previously posted about the vault paintings in 2012 in a piece which can be seen at Guardian Angels at Winchester

This draws attention to the similar scheme which can be seen extending over the vault of the choir and eastern transepts of Salisbury Cathedral and which must be from the same period. I am not sure how extensively that scheme has been restored. In the south transept of Lincoln Cathedral is a restored vault decoration of foliage which must be in origin also of that period and probably part of a much more extensive scheme. The idea a blue ground with stars, which is part of the Winchester arrangement, became very popular and was a feature of the fourteenth century Lady Chapel at Ely and the nave and choir vaults of York Minster from that same century. Remains of a similar starry vault can be seen in the chapel at Rycote in Oxfordshire. Such schemes survive on the continent.

The vault of the Chapel of the Guardian Angels in Winchester Cathedral

Image: Wikimedia

I have now found a more detailed online account of the paintings, and their relationship to the court painters of King Henry III, with his close connections with the cathedral and city, an article which can be seen here

There is a close-up view of part of the ceiling at Look up in the Guardian Angels Chapel and you will see some #NightofStars #FollowTheStar  and a picture of the complete vault at Photographs of Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire, England: Ceiling of the guardian angels chapel

A further insight into the later medieval appearance of the interior of the chapel - and of the ruthlessness of sixteenth century iconoclast “reformers” - can be obtained from an article in the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society from 1990 which discusses and identifies figures from the reredos of the chapel. It can be seen online here 

May the Guardian Angels ever defend us

A bone of King Alfred?

I see on the BBC website that a fragment of bone unearthed in 1999 could well be part of the remains of King Alfred the Great or of his son King Edward the Elder. The report is here. There is also a report in the Daily Telegraph, which has links to related reports about these and other Anglo-Saxon royal remains. It can be read here.

 

The nineteenth century statue of King Alfred in Winchester

Image:mirror.co.uk

I recall that in 1999 to mark the 1100th anniversary of King Alfred's death in 899 there were excavations at the site of Hyde Abbey in Winchester to try to locate the remains of these Kings, but that nothing had apparently been found. Now perhaps, possibly he has turned up. In the wake of recovering the remains of King Richard III there is clearly interest in findfing 'lost' Kings like Alfred or Henry I at Reading, or maybe even Edgar at Glastonbury. As the report indicates getting a DNA link might be very difficult, but it is an interesting and thought provoking possibility. We will await developments with interest.