Queen's art historians visit Salisbury Cathedral

As medieval Gothic art and architecture feature heavily in our History of Art A-level course, the Senior art historians visited Salisbury Cathedral on Sat 28 November – and the sun managed to shine beautifully! Dr Gray, head of History of Art, wrote this report:

The cathedral Education Department provided two excellent and informed lecturer-guides, and we were able to visit not only the whole of this most elegant 13th century cathedral, but also climb up to the heights.  We visited the extraordinary roof space of the nave with its great medieval oak timbers and were able to look down on the topside of the stone vaults.  Then we  climbed over 300 steps (mostly narrow wooden spirals set into scary open 'cages' ) up inside the tower, emerging at a dizzy 69m above ground level to look down on the rooftops.  Even then the inside of the spire (the tallest in England) rose up almost as far again above our heads.  Next term we will be able to make a direct comparison with French Gothic when we visit Notre Dame in Paris, to be followed by a long weekend studying Roman Baroque – in Rome, where else?   Art historians reach the parts other students cannot reach!