insideKENT Magazine Issue 40 - July 2015 | Page 22
ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
The Beaney House of Art & Knowledge
CANTERBURY in the Age of Magna Carta
Canterbury has strong connections with Magna Carta being one of the five
charter towns in England. An extensive programme of events is planned to
mark the 800th anniversary of the sealing of this great charter in 1215.
To mark the importance of the city to Magna
Carta, The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge,
Canterbury’s cultural hub, has organised a special
exhibition: Canterbury in the Age of Magna Carta.
Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton
(1150 – 1228), together with 25 barons, including
Robert De Fitzwalter and other bishops engineered
the sealing of the Magna Carta by the King.
One of the star exhibits in the show are two lifesized plaster statues which portray two key figures
in the history of Magna Carta; the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Stephen Langton, and Baron Robert
De Fitzwalter. For 15 years, the statues sat in
storage awaiting conservation. This year, to mark
the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna
Carta, Canterbury Museums and Galleries
undertook a significant conservation project to
enable their display. These statues represent the
foundations of democracy and connect us to the
sealing of one of the most important documents
ever written and to the individuals who were
responsible for it.
In 1215, 13 copies of the Magna Carta were
made and sent out across the country to great
cathedrals. One of the copies was originally held
at Canterbury Cathedral. Today only four survive;
two in the British Library (including the ‘Canterbury’
Magna Carta’, one at Salisbury Cathedral, and
one at Lincoln Cathedral.
Over 800 years ago, England’s monarch, King
John (1199 – 1216), was very unpopular with his
barons and the church. He imposed heavy
taxation, had disputes with the church, and lost
at war with France. Something had to be done
to limit the power of authoritarian rule, so that no
one was above the law, not even the King. The
The two sculptures featured in The Beaney
exhibition are from a collection of 15 owned by
Canterbury Museums and Galleries. The
Canterbury sculptures are electrotypes of 15 of
the 18 statues of the barons, which were created
for the House of Lords chamber in the new Palace
of Westminster during the 1850s. Both sets of
statues were manufactured by Elkington and Co
of Birmingham.
In the 1850s, public access to the Lords Chamber
was limited, and the statues were, and still are,
situated in niches very high on the walls. In
response to the huge public demand to view the
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statues, the artists' life-sized-scale models were
exhibited in the world-famous showroom of
Elkington & Co at Newall Street in Birmingham
from 1860, where they were seen by tens of
thousands of people. The statues were donated
to Canterbury Museums in 1906. They have a
national artistic significance, being created by
nine sculptors chosen through a competition.
The sculptures of Stephen Langton and Robert
De Fitzwalter will go on permanent display at The
Beaney after the Canterbury in the Age of Magna
Carta exhibition has concluded. The free exhibition
is on display until 6th September 2015 and will
focus upon the stories of people who lived in the
city during 1215.
For more information on Canterbury in
the Age of Magna Carta and other
commemorative exhibitions and events,
please visit www.thebeaney.co.uk.