Facade as Spectacle: Ritual and Ideology at Wells Cathedral

This interdisciplinary study interprets the facade of Wells Cathedral as an integral part of thirteenth-century English Church liturgy and politics. Carolyn Malone posits that architectural motifs, as signs, complemented not only the facade’s sculptural program of the Church Triumphant but also its use during liturgical processions. Interpreted as an ideological construct, the facade’s design is related to theological change, liturgical innovation and political strategy, as well as to the conjuncture of several major historical and cultural events of the 1220s. As part of the Church’s empowering ritual, the facade expressed the reforming views of the Fourth Lateran Council, promoted Wells as the seat the diocese and proclaimed the covenant between Church and State in England following Magna Carta.