Measured drawing of Exeter Cathedral’s West Front

The drawing was made in the late 1980s by Stuart Blaylock of Exeter Archaeology in the course of the front’s repair and conservation. It shows the sculptures around the south porch.

The sculptures at the centre of the lower half of the drawing belong to c. 1342-7 and show the rich and elaborate style favoured in the last stages of Decorated Gothic before the Black Death.

These sculptures consist of a grand row of kings, seated above a row of demi-figures of angels and surrounded by very elaborate canopies. The kings shown in the separate drawings to each side are later in date-late 14th and 15th centuries. The upper tier of sculptures, which probably shows prophets, was added c. 1460-80.

Acknowledgments: S. Blaylcok, Exeter Archaeology