Wells Cathedral Circa 1250 | Ellie Moore Fine Art

Wells Cathedral, circa 1250

I've wanted to work on this project for a long time, since discovering that the magnificent, honey-coloured facade of Wells Cathedral's West Front was once bedecked in Medieval polychromy. I'd no idea any cathedrals were ever painted - wildly different from the intricate edifices of plain stone we see today.

After coming across an exhibit about it in Wells Museum, I researched the painting with the magnificent book 'Wells Cathedral West Front' by Jerry Sampson as my guide, which chronicles the archaeological evidence from several restorations of the Front - any inaccuracies in the painting are mine!

I wanted to recreate the West Front as if standing in the Cathedral Green some 800 years ago, gazing at the facade as the 13th century architects, Adam Lock and Thomas Norreys, intended it to be seen.