Category Archives: Module 5

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The Queen’s College Chapel

An unexpected afternoon telephone call advised me that although I still do not have permission to publish images of The Queen’s College chapel and stained glass, they would grant me permission to photograph them as it is about to undergo 18 months of restoration work and scaffolding will soon entomb the building.

Despite knowing that the conditions would not be perfect, as the sky was clear and it was a bright sunny day, it still made sense to bag some photographs today as there was no guarantee that the conditions would improve in the tiny windows of opportunity.

Once on site, although less than perfect, the lighting was not too bad for attempting some photography of the stained glass on the south side of the apse.  This was going to prove quite a demanding shoot as all the window are backed by protective wire mesh that is visible under direct sunlight on the south side, but fortunately the south side of the apse appeared to be at just the right angle to the sun for this not to be a problem.

Sadly, on returning home, close-up inspection of the images revealed shadows cast by the tie bars, so I will need to hope for more appropriate weather in the coming days.  Pleasingly the overview photograph benefitted from the bright lighting:

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Dominic Price (2019) The College Chapel, The Queen’s College

The Queen’s College was founded in 1341 as Hall of the Queen’s scholars of Oxford by Robert de d’Eglesfield, chaplain to Queen Philippa of Hainault (the wife of King Edward III of England), after whom the Hall was named.  The college was subsequently called the Queen’s Hall, Queenhall and Queen’s College.  An Act of 1585 sought to end this confusion by providing that it should be called by the one name The Queen’s College.

The old chapel was finished in 1382 and extended substantially by the addition of a sumptuous ante-chapel (1516-19).  It was decorated extensively with Abraham van Linge’s stained glass.  Building of the new chapel began in 1713 and Joshua Price was employed to do a complete glazing scheme re-using as much as possible of the glass from the old chapel.  His work is found in the East Window as well as the windows on either side of the entrance.

The Lamp of Sacrifice

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286 Places of Worship – Nathan Coley

While the medium is dramatically different, Nathan Coley’s stunning work shares similar ground to my research.  The Lamp of Sacrifice, 286 Places of Worship comprises cardboard replicas of every building listed as a place of worship in the 2004 Yellow Pages for Edinburgh.  This catalogue of work shares another link to my research: it was my original intention to exhibit photographs of stained glass windows removed from their context to give a uniformity to the work.  Coley’s idea to reconstruct the places of worship in brown cardboard, devoid of religious insignia was to unite the buildings as one group or community.  The piece explores an idea from the Victorian artist and critic John Ruskin (1819-1900): that buildings and architecture are two separate things. One is functional, the other is art.

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John Lord (2015) The Lamp of Sacrifice by Nathan Coley

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John Lord (2015) The Lamp of Sacrifice by Nathan Coley

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John Lord (2015) The Lamp of Sacrifice by Nathan Coley

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Mansfield & The Queen’s College chapels revisited

The original visit to Mansfield College was on a clear, bright September day last year (HERE) which preculded the chance for good quality photography.  Rearranging the visit has not been straightforward and it is more than a little ironic that today is also a clear, bright day!

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Founded in Birmingham in 1838 as a college for Nonconformist students, and known as Spring Hill College, it moved to Oxford in 1886 and was renamed Mansfield College.  The buildings were designed by Basil Champneys and formally opened in 1889.  Mansfield gained full college status in 1995.

College Chapel is unconsecrated and aligned north-south, with the north end being the Liturgical East.  The decoration of the chapel is meant throughout to suggest the one idea of the Church of God as founded upon Christ, and witnessing in various forms to worship of God in Him.  Today the chapel serves many functions, including dining hall and function room.  However, there are weekly chapel services as well as routine recitals.

With the natural lighting being far from ideal, the liturgical east end (facing north!) which houses four windows, seemed quite a viable choice as the light was not too harsh, nor too were the shadows.  Having decided not to photograph the entire window, I spent some time studying the numerous possible lights that compose the gift of Lord Winterstoke of Blagdon.  Finally I settled upon photographing the two lancets that make up the upper half of the central window, depicting St Paul and St John.

UPDATE: 28 August, 2019

Now completed, the stained glass window edit is composed of 23 separate photographs, exposure blended by hand.  EXIF data:

  • Canon EOS-1D X Mark II
  • Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L II USM
  • 360mm | ISO-50 | f/8.0
  • Exposure range: 1/125sec – 1.3sec

The high angle of the photograph resulted in the two lights being partially clipped by the crenulated stonework.  his necessitated considerable reconstruction, but the results were worth the effort:

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Dominic Price (2019) Before and after editing the base of the two lights

One of the more demanding exercises was to translate the Greek text.  hile retrospectively a rather obvious choice of text for St John, it did take a significant number of hours to decipher.

Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος | In the beginning was the Word
John 1:1

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Dominic Price (2019) St Paul and St John [Joseph Bell, 1889 – Mansfield College Chapel

Despite the natural lighting appearing unfavourable, it seemed sensible to revisit The Queen’s College chapel – scaffolding is beginning to be erected; Eton College Choir are using the facilities, so I was only allowed in during their lunch break.  I spent a somewhat therapeutic hour-long period within the chapel, and throughout there was only bright sunlight, casting harsh shadows from the protective wire netting.  Consequently, no photographs were taken.

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Traveling further afield

After much careful planning, I managed to arrange four visits to chapels in a similar area on the east side of Oxford for this afternoon.  Additionally, I visited a college in the morning and finally managed to photograph The Queen’s College chapel in seemingly good lighting.  It was a substantial amount of walking on a very hot day!

Linacre College

My arrival at Linacre College, on the north side of the city, though early in the morning, found the library very much in use and with no easy way to achieve a ‘standard’ East Window view.  Linacre College was founded in 1962 and moved to its current site, at Cherwell Edge, in 1977, where it occupies a Queen Anne building, built in 1886.  This was formerly a convent of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus.  At the turn of the nineteenth century, there was the perceived need for accommodation for Catholic women: the Society ran a large hostel ‘St Frideswide’s’ at Cherwell Edge since 1905.  Soon after, they had a chapel and large residential block built by Basil Champneys.

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Dominic Price (2019) Linacre College Library

Sadly, in the intervening years, the majority of the stained glass was lost, with nothing more than tracery lights remaining in the four south windows.  Both the West and East windows are now entirely plain glass.

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Dominic Price (2019) Linacre College Library tracery

EXIF data:

  • Canon EOS-1D X Mark II
  • Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L II USM
  • 234mm | ISO-50 | f/8.0
  • Exposure range: 1/400sec – 1/60sec

The image is the result of the exposure blending by hand of 21 separate images.

The Queen’s College

On arrival at Queen’s , I was greeted like a long lost friend by the Porters and headed straight to the chapel.  he lighting still less than ideal, but I decided it was worth re-photographing the windows.  On inspection in the evening it was evident that the image quality was worse than on original visit, so opted to edit photographs from 19 August.

The Friary

The Friary is a lengthy bus journey out to the east of the city, close to the digs I had as a student in the 1990’s.  My last visit to the site was some ten years ago when it was still a Convent and I remember from then just how impressive was the chapel as well as its location within St John’s Home.

St John’s Home was founded in 1873 for people with lingering sickness or incurable diseases.  In 1881, the community of All Saints Sisters of the Poor was invited to take charge of the hospital, and in 1893 they became entirely responsible for the work.  In 2013 the Sisters decide to move out of the large convent building and chapel, and move into other buildings on the site.  Their place was filled in July 2013 by the Conventual Franciscans (The Order of Friars Minor Conventual of Great Britain and Ireland), more routinely known in Britain as the Greyfriars.

The chapel and stained glass therein was designed by Sir Ninian Comper and dedicated to St John the Divine and All Saints on 2 October, 1907, although the East Window was not completed until 1911.

Having been given a mini tour of the site by Father Giles, I was left to my own devices within the chapel.  A conveniently located screen allowed me access to the perfect height for photographing the windows.  The light was more favourable at the East end – and (unsurprisingly) the window was that bit more impressive, so I opted to photograph it in its entirety.

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Dominic Price (2019) Chapel of St John the Divine, The Friary

As I was about to depart, Father Giles pointed out that there were another two chapels within the site:  The new chapel for the All Saints Sisters of the Poor, which was sadly unavailable for photography and Bethlehem Chapel:

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Dominic Price (2019) Bethlehem Chapel, St John’s Home

Tucked up against the perimeter wall of St John’s Home grounds lies Bethlehem Chapel, a semi-circular place of prayer and quiet contemplation. Built in 1980, the chapel is shared by the communities of the Greyfriars, and the All Saints Sisters of the Poor, for individual or group prayer. In the winter months individuals of all faiths are invited by Cowley St John to a weekly Stillness and Silence practise.

Warneford Hospital Chapel

While still in the east of the city, the Warneford Hospital site is at the top of Headington Hill, some distance from The Friary and sadly the direct route was going to hafve to be walked.  I was being granted access by Rev Sally Horner who was kindly traveling to the site from some 40+ minutes away.  I felt somewhat guilty taking up her time so endeavoured to race through the work.

Warneford Hospital (formerly Oxford Lunatic Asylum) was originally designed to recreate the atmosphere of a gentleman’s country house.  An 1847 directory states: On the summit of Headington Hill is the Warneford Lunatic Asylum, opened in 1826, for the accommodation of lunatics selected from the higher classes of society.

Pleasingly, time has been sympathetic and change has been dynamic.  Warneford Hospital continues to support the treatment of people (and their families) who are experiencing mental health difficulties.

The Chapel at the Warneford, is in Victorian Gothic Early English style and was begun in 1841 by Thomas Greenshields of Oxford, but not completed until 1852 by J. M. Derick.  It is used routinely by staff and patients for communion services, recitals and other events, supported by a capable Chaplaincy Team.

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Dominic Price (2019) Warneford Hospital Chapel

All of the windows are quite stunning – this is definitely a site I would like to revisit in order to photograph more of the glass.

Bartlemas Chapel

Once again I was let down a little by the order of events… Bartlemas is at the bottom of the hill, close to The Friary, so it was a little frustrating to be heading back to my previous location.  I had to meet Rev Matthew in the main Church Office on Cowley Road, some distance away from the chapel.  This area is a very typical East End of a city, but just yards off the main road it is as though you have travelled into the middle of the Cotswolds…. what an incredible place!

The Chapel of the hospital of St Bartholomew, Cowley, has been known from earliest times as the Bartlemas.  It was built in 1126 along with a hospital building and wardens house, to accommodate 12 lepers and a chaplain.  The site lay on a plateau within Cowley Marsh and had its own gardens, springs and holy well.  It was transferred to Oriel College in 1329.  It suffered during the Civil War and the Siege of Oxford in 1643, when the Parlimentary’s Army filled in the well, stripped the lead from the roof to use for shot, stole the bell and used the chapel as a stable.  However, by 1651 it was restored thanks to the care of Oriel College.  The chapel was gifted to the Parish of Cowley St John in 1913 and has been in continuous occasional use ever since.

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Dominic Price (2019) Bartlemas Chapel

Chapel of St Ignatius

My final visit of the day (thankfully) was at the other end of Cowley Road – perhaps unusually it was the office of a recruiting company:

Built by Jesuit priest Fr Charles Leslie, in the garden of his house, this was the first Roman Catholic place of worship in Oxford after the Reformation.  The chapel is set well back from St Celment’s Street as anti-Catholic sentiment at that time was still strong.  It is named after St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order.  Today the building is an commercial office showing no suggestion of its former life.

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Dominic Price (2019) Chapel of St Ignatius

However, on Tuesday, 31 July 2018, the feast of St Ignatius Loyola, a Blue Plaque was unveiled 225 years after Fr Leslie built the chapel, commemorating this important place in the post-Reformation history of the Church in Oxford:

Blue Plaque - Fast Track

 

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Chapel of St John the Divine, The Friary

The photography of this windows was not ideal.  In a perfect world a 50mm or 60mm prime lens was needed, but the best I could manage was a wide zoom.  Though an ‘L’ Series lens, I already knew image quality was quite soft at the edges.  However, because 40mm was technically too wide for this window, I was able to benefit from using more of the centre of the optics.

As I started editing this piece, I quickly realised that it would have been sensible to have focused upon a single light rather than the entire window!  It was hugely complicated and the illumination dropped off dramatically from top to bottom which was going to require a lot of careful balancing.

Once complete, I was delighted to have worked on the whole window.  However, I quickly realised that I would need to revisit The Friary with my Canon Extender EF 1.4x III, in order to capture better Comper’s signature wild strawberry.

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Dominic Price (2019) East Window [Ninian Comper, 1911 – Chapel of St John the Divine, The Friary]

EXIF data:

  • Canon EOS-1D X Mark II
  • Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L II USM
  • 40mm | ISO-50 | f/8.0
  • Exposure range: 1/160sec – 1.6sec

The image is the result of the exposure blending by hand of 25 separate images.

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The Chapel, New College

I was surprised by the difference in the heights and angles of the numerous tie bars, which creates something of an irregular appearance to the completed image.  Comprising four batches of photographs, the final image is 30MP in resolution.  Sadly this rendition does no justice at all to the superb artwork of Jervais.

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Dominic Price (2019) The Virtues [Thomas Jervais, 1778-85 – The Chapel, New College]

The lower lights of the west window depict The Virtues.  Begun in 1779, this was a collaboration between Sir Joshua Reynolds and Dublin-born glass-painter Thomas Jervais.  Reynolds produced a series of paintings rather than cartoons, which were copied by Jervais. Reynolds used society beauties to model for this work, including the singer Elizabeth Ann Sheridan.

From left to right, the Virtues are as follows: Temperance, Fortitude, Faith, Charity, Hope, Justice, and Prudence.
EXIF data:

  • Canon EOS-1D X Mark II
  • Canon EF 85mm f/4.5-5.6L II USM
  • 85mm | ISO-50 | f/8.0
  • Exposure range: 1/60sec – 1/2sec

The image is the result of the exposure blending by hand of 68 separate images.

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Warneford Hospital Chapel

The stained glass has an impressive vibrancy with many of the windows depicting, quite appropriately, healing and related themes.  In this window, the narrative of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee is depicted in his healing of the bleeding woman who had touched the hem of his garment.

The window lent itself well to the removal of tie bars, which was undoubtedly four additional hours of editing well spent.

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Dominic Price (2019) The Gift of Healing [Artist Unknown, 18?? – Warneford Chapel, Warneford Hospital]

Text:
Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.
Matthew 9:22

EXIF data:

  • Canon EOS-1D X Mark II
  • Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM
  • 85mm | ISO-50 | f/8.0
  • Exposure range: 1/20sec – 3.2sec

The image is the result of the exposure blending by hand of 20 separate images.

The tracery below each window was beautiful – and pleasingly straightforward to edit!  Sadly I only photographed one example, so must return for more.

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Dominic Price (2019) Tracery Flowers [Artist Unknown, 18?? – Warneford Chapel, Warneford Hospital]

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Revisiting sites…

Clearly this week marks the end of the typical summer holiday period as a number of the contacts I need to see have returned to work.  This affords me the chance to re-photograph the Lady Chapel of Campion Hall and also to have a follow-up meeting in Christ Church Cathedral.  With the two being in pleasingly close proximity, I will not have to spend another day lugging a heavy camera case and tripod across Oxford!

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Campion Hall revisited

I do enjoy, increasingly, the visits to Oxford’s various chapels and in particular to the Permanent Private Halls: the tranquillity and calm provides a wonderful tonic to the hustle and bustle of every day life.  This is never more true than in the summer vacation when the Chapels, Halls and Colleges are mostly free of the students.  Today Campion Hall had just a skeleton staff.  I was greeted like a long-lost friend and given free access to their chapels.

Uniform cloud cover meant that the all-important weather was more favourable today than on my fist visit, although the Lutyens Chapel clearly benefits from bright sunshine.  However, in the Lady Chapel, the benefit of diffused, cool, natural lighting was immediately evident.  This being my first revisit to the chapel, I had the chance to compare the colour balance and saturation of the original edit with the chapel itself.  Clearly the colour temperature of the natural light has a vital part to play in the Lady Chapel.  This visit there were significantly more evident blue hues than on my initial visit, giving a cooler, but more realistic appearance to the illustrated sky.

I had hoped that the remedial work to the plaster in the Lady Chapel would have been completed by the time of this visit: sadly not, so there was again the need to replicate the intricate shadows that fall on the plain white walls as I retouch the bare plaster.

Substantially more time was spent setting up the shot, ensuring that the camera was mounted perfectly centrally within the room so that the reflections in the stone floor were aligned perfectly.

The improved lighting conditions allowed me to pull more detail out of the plain glass windows, better revealing the metalwork.  Additionally, a greater level offine detail could be seen within the mural.  I am sure that secondary visits to most of the site would result in marked improvements in the quality of my work, but it is rarely possible or feasible.

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Dominic Price (2019) Campion Hall Lady Chapel (revisited)

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Dominic Price (2019) Campion Hall Lady Chapel

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Christ Church Cathedral revisited

Today saw the eagerly awaited chance to review my previous work and discuss future plans with two of the Managers within the Cathedral – assorted summer leave dates has delayed this by some six weeks!  Those two key figures are the Operations Manager (with whom I have previously liaised) and the Public Engagement Manager.

The main purpose of this visit is for me to persuade these two influential members of the Cathedral Chapter that Christ Church Cathedral should host an exhibition of my work in late November.  However, it is not for them to decide: I require them to propose my plans to the Cathedral Chapter during their next meeting in late October.

To help with my ‘sell’, I travelled to the meeting with a selection of mounted prints depicting assorted stained glass windows from the chapels of Oxford, together with proof prints of the numerous windows that I have worked upon within the Cathedral.  It seemed pertinent to print off a spiral bound working proof of the supporting book to gauge their reaction – the possibility of having it on sale within a site that attracts over half a million visitors each year is not to miss.

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William Clowes and Sons Ltd (1949) Christ Church Cathedral Map lithograph

The meeting was held within the cordoned-off nave on a bright an busy week day that saw crowds of tourists in and around the College and Cathedral.  We talked for almost an hour and my presentation was met with tremendous enthusiasm – way beyond anything I had hoped.  While requiring rubber stamping by the Chapter in October, the recommendations that will be put to them are for the Cathedral to host an exhibition of my work in the North Transept together with a book launch, and the Cathedral shop will stock the book as well as prints of my work.

With the meeting over, before taking my leave, I was introduced to further research centred upon long lost stained glass from the Cathedral.  Impressed by the pedantic and fastidious accuracy of my current work, I was asked if conducting advanced research on a hoard of 16th century van Linge stained glass as a part-time DPhil would be of interest to me.  Certainly a very interesting an exciting and flattering proposal.