Chichester Cathedral

John Piper tapestry, Chichester Cathedral
The design by Piper was woven in France in 1966. The central theme is the Holy Trinity; on the side panels appear the "four beasts full of eyes before and behind" (Rev. 4:6) traditionally regarded as symbolizing the four evangelists.

The nave of Chichester Cathedral is unusual in that its aisles were doubled in the 13th century. Under the floor of the nave are the remains of a Roman mosaic pavement, which can be viewed through a glass window. Also in the interior are the grave of the composer Gustav Holst and the Gothic "Arundel tomb" referred to in a famous poem by Philip Larkin.

Despite its venerable age, the cathedral contains several modern works of art, including tapestries by John Piper and Ursula Benker-Schirmer, a stained-glass window by Marc Chagall, a painting by Graham Sutherland called "Noli me Tangere", and a reredos for the St John the Baptist's Chapel by Patrick Procktor.

Nave of Chichester Cathedral, looking east to the choir.

This poem, written in 1956 and published in The Whitsun Weddings collection, is based on an actual stone monument, located in Chichester Cathedral. The "Arundel" of the title refers to the nearby town of Arundel, an ancient Roman town lying in a prominent position in hills overlooking the River Arun. Larkin had clearly seen the monument for himself, for the poem is characterized by the sense of the observer who looks at the monument, walks around it and begins to notice features as he looks. In this Larkin appreciates that he is only one of a huge number of visitors, across many generations, who have come into the Cathedral, for purposes of worship, for spiritual guidance and consolation, or simply out of curiosity.

The monument, as can be seen from this photograph, is located in the Western part of the cathedral, in a side-nave, with the two figures lying together lit by the changing pattern of light and shadow within the cathedral. The poem manages to convey this sense of being there, looking at the monument for oneself, extremely well. It is significant that the poem does not make overt reference to the Christian setting, and that its (tentative) conclusions seem to be both secular and humanist in intent. But it is also significant that a copy of Larkin's poem is now placed at the base of the statue, so that the modern-day visitor can have the direct experience of both poem and effigy.

An Arundel Tomb

Side by side, their faces blurred

The earl and countess lie in stone,

Their proper habits vaguely shown

As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,

And that faint hint of the absurd -

The little dogs under their feet.

Such plainness of the pre-baroque

Hardly involves the eye, until

It meets his left-hand gauntlet, still

Clasped empty in the other; and

One sees, with a sharp tender shock,

His hand withdrawn, holding her hand.

They would not think to lie so long.

Such faithfulness in effigy

Was just a detail friends would see:

A sculptor's sweet commissioned grace

Thrown off in helping to prolong

The Latin names around the base.

They would not guess how early in

Their supine stationary voyage

The air would change to soundless damage,

Turn the old tenantry away ;

How soon succeeding eyes begin

To look, not read. Rigidly they

Persisted, linked, through lengths and breadths

Of time. Snow fell, undated. Light

Each summer thronged the glass. A bright

Litter of birdcalls strewed the same

Bone-riddled ground. And up the paths

The endless altered people came,

Washing at their identity.

Now, helpless in the hollow of

An unarmorial age, a trough

Of smoke in slow suspended skeins

Above their scrap of history,

Only an attitude remains:

Time has transfigured them into

Untruth. The stone fidelity

They hardly meant has come to be

Their final blazon, and to prove

Our almost-instinct almost true:

What will survive of us is love

The great window in the south transept was inserted, with considerable imagination, by Bishop Langton between 1305 and 1337. Among the early bishops was St Richard of Chichester, often described as the most English of saints. Following the removal of his body to a shrine behind the High Altar in the presence of King Edward I, it became a place of pilgrimage for centuries.

The South Transept has a series of portraits painted on wooden panels by Lambert Barnard, an Italian, painter to Bishop Sherburne, who held the see in 1508-1536. Not in the scope of these pages, but we have to look anyway at these and the companion works in the North transept, which need to be viewed together by crossing from the one to the other. All the portraits of bishops have the same face; the kings are individual to at least some degree, though not in some cases particularly resembling the monarchs concerned - the large pictures, showing the founding of the see and the renewal of the charter by Henry VIII to Bishop Sherburne himself, show masses of richly-robed figures filling the field in the style of the time, as painters such as Rossetti were to return to 350 years on. The pictures have undergone at least some restoration work.



Below in The Pictures are some of the Statues you will see in The Cathedral.

What's on in Chichester
Chichester offers a fine array of attractions for a city with a population of only 25,000 people, and has a high quality of life. Chichester Festival Theatre, the annual Chichester Festivities and Chichester Real Ale and Jazz Festival all attract thousands of people each year.

Chichester's Pallant House Art Gallery is establishing a reputation as one of the finest modern art galleries outside London too: and on a more modest level the free exhibitions at the Oxmarket Arts Centre are well worth taking a few minutes out of a shopping trip to enjoy.

Find out what's on in and around Chichester with our what's on guides for classical music, dance, comedy, gigs, art and the theatre.

Chichester Attractions
The city centre is packed with notable buildings, from Chichester Cathedral to John Edes House, the Market Cross, Pallant House (which is home of the prize winning art gallery), the Guildhall in Priory Park, the Georgian Houses of the Pallants and hundreds of listed historic buildings.

The partially restored Chichester Canal is now an attractive enhancement to the city and Chichester Canal Basin is becoming an attractive place to pass the time of day once more.

Just outside Chichester, in the village of Fishbourne, lie the remains of Fishbourne Roman Palace, one of the outstanding Roman sites in the UK, now a museum of national importance. The Chichester District Museum in Little London is pretty good too - and entry is free.