Saturday, August 22, 2009

King's Chapel


The big draw in Cambridge, other than the university, is King's Chapel; not a cathedral, just a college chapel, but a major political statement, finished off by Henry VIII; begun a century earlier as a rather different sort of statement

West towers
 
West windows
 
What is extraordinary about King's is the fan vaulting, ordered personally by Henry, 2000 tons of it literally hanging from the roofing structure above via a sort of reverse arch system, most extensive in England
Vaulting close-up; capstones weigh a ton each

There is also Rubens' Adoration of the Magi, the altar piece
But the place is mostly about Henry, and His Church
 
And, look closely, "RA," Regina Anne (as in Boleyn)

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