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Thirteenth-Century Wall Painting of Salisbury Cathedral: Art, Liturgy, and Reform (review)

Matthew Reeve’s book rightly notes that the important thirteenth-century paintings of Salisbury Cathedral have been scarcely discussed previously, and therefore their fitting place in the understanding of the cathedral has been disregarded. Concentrating on the paintings of the vaults of the east end, Reeve explains their iconography, place in the architectural framework, and role in the rituals of the Church. Although the vault paintings now visible are nineteenth-century re-creations, the author is able to reconstruct most of the originals, the execution of which he dates persuasively to c. 1236–44,but perhaps planned as early as c. 1220. By using late-eighteenth-century drawings and descriptions, he identifies the subjects of the images and their possible meanings for the canons. Earlier studies on the paintings by Frank Horlbeck included some of the same information, but Reeve, whose bibliography reveals energetic research through museum, archival, and secondary sources, has incorporated more material and interpreted it further.1 He also corrected some of Horlbeck’s interpretations by locating other texts, such as a later recension of the Ordo Prophetarum in Rouen, the Festum Asinorum, that match the images more specifically.