By Ellie Jones, Cathedral Archivist
This print, enhanced with bright gold highlights, shows the Cathedral’s seventeenth century reredos. A reredos is a decorated screen which stands behind an altar – in this case the Cathedral’s high altar. The dominant central feature of the design are the figures of Aaron and Moses supporting tablets bearing the words of the Ten Commandments.
This reredos replaced an earlier one, erected between 1316 and 1325, whose statues and central silver panel were destroyed in the 1550’s. The surviving plain wall was then covered by a painted canvas screen. On 25th August 1638 – in response to a directive issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, to provide something more seemly – the Archdeacon of Barnstaple, William Helyer, persuaded the Dean & Chapter to approve the “lymner” (painter) William Cavell’s plans for repairs and new decoration in the quire. Cavell painted this scene directly on to the stone wall. It measured 34 feet (ten metres) wide by 20 feet (six metres) high, and survived in situ until 1818, when the wall was replaced by a new altar screen designed by John Kendall. The original heads of Aaron and Moses, cut into square stone panels, still exist and are kept in the Cathedral Library and Archives.