Carolyn Malone's book concerns a most extraordinary work: the West front of Wells Cathedral. Twice as wide as the nave of the church itself and adorned with no less than one hundred seventy seven statues, the uniqueness of this work yet extends far beyond these obvious physical characteristics. Malone contrasts it with its French predecessors: While French cathedral facades focused upon magnificent portals with narrative programs involving the Coronation of the Virgin and the Last Judgment, Wells has but small portals, and the thematic of the Coronation of the Virgin is subsumed into a wider one, that of the Church Triumphant, with Christ in majesty atop the facade; there is no reference to retribution. Its parts are not parceled out logically, so as to make for a legible narrative, but rather they make a consistent and continuous presentation as if to persuade and move by spectacle.
Malone places this unique work in an array of contexts in order to explicate its unusual features; indeed, this array of contexts could well constitute the implicit hypothesis of the book: the facade is the expression of particular architectural, personal, ecclesiastical, political, pastoral, liturgical, and theological factors, no single one of which works independently of the others; rather, they cohere in a synthesis that characterizes a most creative and significant point in the history of England and its Church.
Each of these factors is explored in a text rich with wide-ranging references. It is to the publisher's credit that footnotes are on the page, since many pages are more note than text; it is a book whose clear exposition is complemented by rich documentation, allowing the reader either to follow the argument directly or to be immersed in the diverse supplementary material that gives the argument depth and persuasion. The book is illustrated with fifty-five photographic plates, over half of them the author's own photographs, together with a synoptic diagram of the entire contents of the facade.
Behind this story is the principal proponent of the church of Wells as cathedral and of its facade, Jocelin, Bishop of Bath, 1206-1242. Jocelin was from Wells and remained a supporter of the canons of Wells in their rivalry with the monks of Bath for the seat of the diocese. He succeeded in having the diocese named Bath and Wells (a designation it retains to this day), and he built his bishop's palace at Wells. But Jocelin led a double life, since he was also a royal official. Even before his election as bishop, he had served as a judge of the king's court; as bishop he was a participant in the negotiations surrounding the Magna Carta of 1215, a principal in the coronation of Henry II at Gloucester in 1216, and then a main counselor of Henry for the rest of his life. Malone characterizes this illustrious public figure as "a man of action, decisive and shrewd, precise and learned, and clearly supportive of his canons, church, king, and country." She presents him as the moving spirit behind the facade of the cathedral and at each stage skillfully weaves the threads of Jocelin's dual career into the thematic of the facade.
Malone's description of the elements of the facade is detailed and engrossing. Yet in the detail, she discerns important unique elements that play into her interpretation of the facade as a whole. Two of these are the gabled niche, holding statues of saints, and the quatrefoil, holding depictions of angels or biblical history, elements not found on the facades of contemporaneous churches. These elements have been transferred from other sources, the gabled niches from reliquaries, and the quatrefoils from choir furnishings and tombs. It is among the more penetrating insights of this study that the transference of motifs from the centers of sacred activity, shrines and choirs, to the facade signifies at once a manifestation of the sacred to the exterior world and an invitation into the more intimately sacred regions within the church itself. Her descriptions of the parallels between the facade, whose lower level projects an image of a choir screen, and the choir screen itself, with its connotations of enclosing the most sacred activity of the Eucharist, reinforces these insights. Likewise, her descriptions of the manner in which the strong undercutting of these elements contributes to a "dematerialization of stone," and the lightness of slender shafts and filigree contributes an element of heavenly spirituality to the facade are among the most beautiful writing of the book.
The uniqueness of the work is seen particularly in its overall thematic. Malone rightly sees this as the Church Triumphant, the City of God, a heavenly order, in contrast with the French tradition, which depicts an order of salvation. She views the central images, the Virgin and Child (Christ's corporal, mortal body), the Coronation of the Virgin above it (the mystical immortal flesh), and Christ in the mandorla at the top (his final theophanic appearance) as placed in a purposeful, hierarchical order. Rows of saints in niches and angels in quatrefoils depict a heavenly order as well. Finally, in contrast to French facades, there is no place given to eternal punishment. While aspects of these interpretations may be speculative, they are generally supported from a wide variety of contexts.
Another unique feature at Wells is that the depictions of kings and bishops are reversed. Traditionally, the church, bishops, should be at the right hand of Christ (the side of priority), while the state, kings, should be at his left. At Wells, the kings are mostly to the right, but there is even some admixture of these personages. Malone sees this as representing the intimate association of regnum and sacerdotium that Jocelin was a part of as bishop and royal counselor. Malone describes the interaction of the facade with the liturgy at Wells. The procession on Palm Sunday is the best example, for the facade contains a chamber with openings facing outward, from which choir boys would sing Gloria, laus, et honor at a specified point in the procession. Several English churches have similar "singers' holes," but Wells is the place where their purpose is most clearly demonstrable. Malone correctly describes the adaptation of the Sarum rite to the topography of Wells; the ceremonial books prescribe this hymn exactly at the proper point to be sung from the singers' holes in the Palm Sunday procession. (Similar holes at Salisbury cannot be correlated with the Palm Sunday procession there.) The discussion of liturgical vestments is also fascinating: priests, bishops, and popes are conventionally dressed in liturgical garments. Unusually, however, at Wells, so are deacons and angels. Particularly, the deacons are shown in a variety of vestments, including the only known medieval depiction of a stolewise folded chasuble. While Malone presents several plausible explanations for this, her general one is sufficient: the facade is intimately related to and manifests the liturgy which takes place behind it.
The facade at Wells was probably designed in the 1220s. Malone details the ways the history of the preceding decade provides a forceful context for many of its unique features. The interdict of 1208-1213 forced a period of stagnation, the release of which meant accelerated developments. The Magna Carta of 1215 provided a solid foundation for a balance of forces between king and nobles as well as between king and church. The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, with its emphasis upon annual confession and communion and upon preaching, gave an impetus to persuade the laity of their role in the church's life. These are illustrated by through depictions of preaching on the facade and by the altar-centered emphasis upon the Eucharist brought out by parallels between the facade and the choir screen and implicit in the depictions of heavenly liturgy. Jocelin's own dedication to the canons at Wells and to the cause of Wells as the seat of the diocese is a forceful additional factor in the depiction of the Church Triumphant on the West facade.
The range of scholarship brought to bear upon this one work of art is admirable. What is more admirable is the way the explication of such a complex work is given a convincing synthesis of motives and themes rooted in complex life of Jocelin and his canons and expressive of a view oriented upon the heavens, upon an eschatological vision of the Church Triumphant.