Canterbury Stained Glass Opens Window on Medieval World

November 18, 2013

A display of stained glass art, now in Los Angeles, has opened a window on life in medieval England. The art work from Canterbury Cathedral conveys the color and drama of an earlier era.

The color and pageantry of medieval England has been portrayed on the big screen, from jousting knights to historical tales like that of Thomas Becket, the 12th century Archbishop of Canterbury who was murdered in his cathedral at the instigation of King Henry II. In the 1964 Hollywood version of the story, Richard Burton played Becket and Peter O’Toole was King Henry.

Some of the color from that time and place has come to the Getty Museum, a few kilometers from Hollywood. Six of the cathedral’s stained glass windows have been brought here while workers in Canterbury repair its surrounding stonework.

It's a first, says the Dean of Canterbury, Robert Willis, who oversees the cathedral.

“It has never happened before, and so this is a unique experience for us, and also for the characters portrayed in the stained glass," he said.

Those characters are from the Bible, but the images were based on people in 12th century England.

The windows are being displayed along with a 12th century prayer book called the St. Alban’s Psalter, a collection of psalms from the Bible. It's on loan from the Cathedral Library in Hildesheim, Germany.