Christ Church Cathedral – The Jonah Window

I have not warmed very much to the van Linge windows I have witnessed thus far (New College Chapel and University College Chapel), but this window is fantastic – incredible detail and such vibrant colours for a work of art that is almost 400 years old.  The fact that it does exist is something of a miracle: Christ Church Cathedral once housed a magnificent collection of windows by Van Linge, but almost all of them were destroyed not long after installation in the fury of Puritan iconoclasm during the English Civil War.  Damage to this window is evident – the only calmes should be vertical and horizontal, but the web of other leadwork represents repairs to the panes of glass.

This edit is only partially complete as there is much cleaning still to do: once again this window seems to be home to many spiders and their webs feature heavily in the topmost light.  It is a window that I would much like to complete editing, but then the same is true of most of those within the cathedral.  Perhaps I can interest them in a the production of a publication as there is currently no guide to the windows (indeed, possibly no guide to the cathedral) once I have completed my Research Project.

Dominic Price (2019) Jonah and the City of Nineveh [Abraham van Linge, 1630 – Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford]