Avis Berman. Rebels on Eighth Street: Juliana Force and the Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1990, pp. 461–63, ill., calls it "Cathedrals of Art" and dates it 1942–44. The most common theme in the decoration, both external and internal, of any church, is the salvation of humankind by Jesus Christ. The decorative scheme often functions as a Poor Man's Bible, warning the church-goer that, in Biblical terms, the just rewards for his sinful nature is death, and that only through Jesus can forgiveness and redemption be gained. The scheme typically starts outside the church, on the west front, with the portrayal of Christ the Judge above the lintel of the main door. In Romanesque and Gothic buildings, this is usually a sculptural group, and may entail a whole scene of the Last Judgement with details of souls being weighed and rewarded, or dragged down to Hell by demons. In those churches in which painted rather than sculptured decoration prevails, the Last Judgement is often located on the interior of the west end, rather than the exterior. [14] [ full citation needed] [15] [ full citation needed]

The term " choir" is used in three distinct ways in relation to cathedrals. As well as the architectural use, it pertains to the choir of "choristers", often men and boys, that sing at the services. It is also the term used for that section of the church where the choir sits, and where choral services take place. In a cathedral or large church, there may be fixed seating in this area, called "choir stalls" which also provided seating for the cathedral clergy and some congregation. The choir stalls are often richly carved and decorated. The bishop's throne or cathedra is often located in this space. The choir may be separated from the nave by a highly decorated screen of wood or stone. The organ which provides music and accompanies the choir may be located on the screen, or may be in the gallery above the choir, or in a transept. Some churches have an organ loft at the west end of the church.One of the influences on church architecture was the mausoleum. The mausoleum of a noble Roman was a square or circular domed structure which housed a sarcophagus. Constantine the Great built for his daughter Constantina a mausoleum which has a circular central space surrounded by a lower ambulatory or passageway separated by a colonnade. Cécile Whiting. "Decorating with Stettheimer and the Boys." American Art 14 (Spring 2000), pp. 40–41, 43. Helen Langa. "Review. Recent Feminist Art History: An American Sampler." Feminist Studies 30 (Fall 2004), p. 716, fig. 2.

There are many large churches, abbeys, and basilicas built in this style, but few cathedrals in Western Europe, the most notable exception being St Paul's Cathedral in London. St Paul's is an unusual cathedral in that it was designed by a single individual and completed in a short time. The architect was Sir Christopher Wren and the building replaced the ancient cathedral which burnt down in the Great Fire of 1666. It is in the Baroque style, but it is a very controlled and English sort of Baroque in which Wren creates surprising and dramatic spatial effects, particularly in his use of the dome, which, like Brunelleschi's dome in Florence, spans not only the nave but also the aisles, opening the whole centre of the church into a vast light space. [20] [ full citation needed] [21] [ full citation needed] [24] [ full citation needed] Kunsthaus Zürich. "2 Jahrzehnte amerikanische Malerei, 1920–1940," August 23–October 28, 1979, no. 21. It used to be thought that Wren finalised the whole design up to the roofline of the Cathedral before work began on the foundations in June 1675, but recent research on the activities of Wren’s draughtsmen in relation to the main phases of construction has established that he revised the design stage by stage as work moved from one part of the building to the next. While there are characteristics of each building that are distinctly English, these cathedrals are marked by their architectural diversity, both from one to another and also within each individual building. This is much more the case than in the medieval cathedrals of Northern France, for example, where the cathedrals and large abbeys form a relatively homogenous group and the architectural development can easily be traced from building to building. [4] All the medieval buildings that are now cathedrals of England were Roman Catholic in origin, as they predate the Reformation. All these buildings now serve the Church of England as a result of the change to the official religion of the country, which occurred in 1534 during the reign of Henry VIII.

Penrose’s Architectural drawings

Most cathedrals and great churches have a cruciform groundplan. In churches of Western European tradition, the plan is usually longitudinal, in the form of the so-called Latin Cross with a long nave crossed by a transept. The transept may be as strongly projecting as at York Minster or not project beyond the aisles as at Amiens Cathedral. Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein. American Women Artists from Early Indian Times to the Present. Boston, 1982, p. 194. In the 1170s Gothic architecture was introduced from France at Canterbury and Westminster Abbey. Over the next 400 years it developed in England, sometimes in parallel with and influenced by Continental forms, but generally with great local diversity and originality. [4] [6] New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Painting: 1905–1950," April 19–October 7, 1991, no catalogue. Stephen May. "Florine Stettheimer: Whitney Museum of American Art." Art News 94 (November 1995), p. 244.

The main body of the building, making the longer arm of the cross, where worshippers congregate, is called the nave. The term is from the Latin word for ship. A cathedral is symbolically a ship bearing the people of God through the storms of life. In addition, the high wooden roof of a large church is similarly constructed to the hull of a ship. [16] [ bettersourceneeded] Despite losses and changes of direction, the over-riding aim in the decoration of church interiors is to convey the message of the Gospels. To this end, many churches have, in their decorative schemes, elements of a Poor Man's Bible, illustrating aspects of the Life of Christ and other related narratives, with the aim of educating the viewer. Among these representations are the Stations of the Cross and the Crucifix which was traditionally suspended from the chancel arch, or placed on a rood screen at the entrance to the quire. Other figurative representations include sculptures or pictures of saints and prophets, which are the common subject of the panel paintings on the iconostasis of Orthodox Churches. Whilst many of the churches no longer function as places of worship, and the surviving glebe houses have either passed to private ownership, or have simply disappeared, an extensive collection of over 9,000 original drawings (plans, elevations, sections, details) documents this ecclesiastical world, providing an important resource for understanding the architectural, liturgical, social and cultural development of the Church of Ireland through the centuries. The third group are those churches established as new cathedrals since the Reformation. They include five great medieval abbey churches established as new cathedrals under Henry VIII: Bristol, Chester, Gloucester, Oxford, and Peterborough. Five further large churches later became cathedrals: St Albans and Southwark, which were of monastic foundation, and Manchester, Ripon, and Southwell, which were collegiate churches (and all of which consequently combine the functions of cathedral and parish church). Westminster Abbey was a Benedictine monastery that became a cathedral after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but only for ten years.Rolf Toman, editor, Romanesque – Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, 1997, Konemann, ISBN 3-89508-447-6 The nave is braced on either side by lower aisles, separated from the main space by a row of piers or columns. The aisles facilitate the movement of people, even when the nave is full of worshippers. They also strengthen the structure by buttressing the inner walls that carry the high roof, which in the case of many cathedrals and other large churches, is made of stone. Above the roof of the aisle are the clerestory windows which light the nave.