ABSTRACT
The thirty sculpted figures on the upper part of the façade of Peterborough Cathedral have attracted no serious attention in published literature over the past century, and there is no extensive or reliable publication on them at all. What is left of these figures is in very poor condition; too poor, indeed, for them to be usefully integrated into a stylistic history of medieval sculpture. However, it is possible to identify the figures by type, and to recognize them collectively as an evocation of the Church’s authority over earthly affairs. Certain aspects of the sculpture’s iconography may possibly relate to the abbey’s foundation history, and there is an extended sense in which the whole ensemble has a bearing on local monastic identity. Historically rooted arguments for the sculpture’s meaning rely on reading it in the context of the façade as a whole. Several of these arguments are briefly introduced after the main analysis of the sculpture.
