The Origins and Development of the English 'Stone-Cage' Chantry Chapel

Abstract

Although 'stone-cage' chapels are widely admired, and briefly discussed in numerous publications, little detailed attention has been paid to them as a group. Their aesthetic richness, conceptual interest, and uniquely English provenance all invite examination of their origins and development, but — in striking contrast to three-dimensional tombs — these problems have been largely neglected. The following essay aims to supply this want. After a preliminary discussion of the function and implications of the term 'stone-cage' and a review of the domain to which it may be applied, an analysis of the structures and ideas out of which the type arose is presented. The date and patronage circumstances of the earliest surviving stone-cage at Winchester cathedral, built for William of Edington, are discussed at some length. A subsequent section charts the development of the stone-cage from this point (almost certainly in the 1350s) to the latest examples. Vaulting was an early and widely adopted refinement of the type, but subsequent developments were not so much linear as responsive to local environments and circumstances. The final part of the essay looks at more di C use cultural catalysts for the stone-cage. In particular, a broad-based enthusiasm for small, self-contained structures, observable in a number of phenomena, is singled out for its influence on the generation and reception of the type. Throughout the essay, the impartibility of formal and conceptual origins for the stone-cage chapel is stressed.

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