Virtual Refectory: Dancing with Death

We’re going to the dark side…

Morning Ecclesiasticals,

We haven’t covered much of the deathly side of medieval churches, but, of course, the inevitability of passing over and insuring one’s place in the afterlife meant that the concept of memento-mori was ubiquitous, and no more so than in ecclesiastical art.

Henry Williams and ‘ymage of deth’, Stanford-on-Avon. Photo: Gordon Plumb.

The parish church of St Nicholas at Stanford-on-Avon, Northamptonshire features one of the most fascinating examples of a memento mori, or symbol of mortality, surviving in medieval stained glass. An exact parallel for this composition has never been found in any other church in Britain, yet its ‘deathly’ subject was of considerable iconographic popularity throughout the medieval church.