Saturday, March 28, 2009

Salisbury Cathedral Wm Golding's The Spire Edward Rutherford's Sarum

http://majorityoftwo.blogspot.com/2009/03/bowl-of-roses.html

My comments in this blog about art and the imagination are certainly apropos.

Depictions in art, literature and
filmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury_Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral by John
Constable, ca. 1825. As a gesture of appreciation for John Fisher, the Bishop of
Salisbury, who commissioned this painting, Constable included the Bishop and his
wife in the canvas (bottom left).The cathedral is the
subject of famous paintings by John Constable. The view depicted in the
paintings has changed very little in almost two centuries.The cathedral is also
the subject of William Golding's novel The Spire
which deals with the
fictional Dean Jocelin who makes the building of the spire his life's work.In Edward Rutherfurd's historical novel Sarum, the narrative deals
with the human settlement of the Salisbury area from pre-historic times just
after the last Ice Age to the modern era
. The construction of the
Cathedral itself, its famous spire, bell tower and Charter House are all
important plot points in the novel, which blends historic characters with
invented ones.The cathedral featured as the setting for the
2005 BBC television drama Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle,
written by Rhidian
Brook and directed by Susanna White. A teacher takes a party of unruly London
fifth-form school children on an outing to the cathedral, and, unbeknownst to
them, marking the day 21 years previously when he had proposed to his girlfriend
who had later committed suicide. The journey is also his
personal pilgrimage to regain his lost spirituality.
The cathedral was the
subject of a Channel 4 Time Team programme that was first broadcast on February
08, 2009 Art coming to life!


There is a certain leap of the imagination necessary in any appreciation of art. The mind has a life of its own embedded in art, and appreciation of art makes us literate in the biggest sense of the word.Salisbury Cathedral has a fascinating background as referenced in the wicki article above and was the setting of Mr Harvey Lights and the novel Sarum as referenced above. This Salisbury Cathedral I assume is the painting in the post, the English Cathedral.

2 comments:

  1. I was so pleased to read your comment on my blog. I have always loved my mother's little watercolor of Salisbury Cathedral, and I couldn't wait to visit it when I went to England. Have you been there? It's a lovely area. Even the trees are still there. It was thrilling for me to go into the painting.

    I have always enjoyed Constable's wonderful paintings of Salisbury Cathedral.

    Thank you for the history lesson! :-)

    I have always enjoyed

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  2. My comment posted before I finished... I meant to say also, I have always enjoyed stories of Salisbury Cathedral as well.

    ReplyDelete