Fountains Abbey. The Refectory and Kitchen
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
Image: 28.5 x 23.6 cm (11 1/4 x 9 5/16 in.) Mount: 43.9 x 30 cm (17 5/16 x 11 13/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1952
Accession Number
52.640 (4)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the evocative ruins of Fountains Abbey through this stunning 1850s albumen silver print by Joseph Cundall and Philip Henry Delamotte.uring the Refectory and Kitchen—once bustling heart of this grand Cistercian monastery in Yorkshire, England—the image measures 28.5 x 23.6 cm and preserves the abbey’s weathered stone arches and vaults with remarkable clarity. Founded in 1132 and dramatically dissolved during Henry VIII’s Reformation in 1539, Fountains Abbey stands as one of Britain’s largest and most intact monastic ruins, symbolizing medieval monastic life and its turbulent end. Cun...