Title: A Seat of Authority: The Archbishop's Throne at Canterbury Cathedral
Abstract: At the center of this paper is the archbishop's throne at Christ Church, Canterbury, a monument that has been hitherto neglected in studies of the architecture and furnishings of the early Gothic cathedral. Beginning with a discussion of the archaeological and documentary evidence for the chair, this paper then examines the historical context for its construction. Commissioned by the monastic community in 1201-4, the throne was constructed following the dissolution of the well-known "Hackington project," by which the archbishop sought to remove the archiepiscopal cathedra from Christ Church by building a new archiepiscopal college at Hackington. It is argued that the throne was constructed to represent and validate the monks' claims to ancient archiepiscopal status. The retrospective character of the chair is then discussed and located within the artistic and cultural idioms of the great church itself.
Publication Year: 2003
Publication Date: 2003-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 4
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot