Ely Cathedral.
Just noticed the tag on this thread. 
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Photo 3 is of Bernini’s baldachin (nothing to do with being clean shaven), so you must have been roming in the Vatican
Amazing ceilings Gilly
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And what always amazes me is how they worked on the buildings in those days without the modern equipment available today. I wouldn’t fancy working from a medieval scaffold tower made of wood and tied together with string, would you ?
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Exactly. How did they do it, and, didn’t they have much more important things to do, like avoiding starvation or fighting senseless wars? Still boggles my mind. Every village had a church that must have taken thousands and thousands of man hours to build.
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If you’re traveling through Burgundy… 
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If only - it would be absolutely amazing to see it. Unfortunately we’re about 500km from the site. A bit to far I’m afraid but I enjoyed the video. Thanks @Juliet
Have a look at this one its one of my local churches
That’s surprising—thanks for sharing! However, I find the figures to be rather gloomy. Smiles are all too rare in religious art; it’s really only the Virgin Mary who is sometimes depicted smiling.
I suppose the times when art was used to teach parts of the Christian story were times when the people didn’t have much to smile about.
Pile poil! Bravo.
TBH I feel much church art and decoration for these periods was about power and grandeur, reminding people who was in charge and that they needed to be obedient and not challenge authority. Not much space for smiling in that brief.
Yep. Money and effort was spent on agrandisement of the Church, which in turn kept the organs of government in place. The monarch allows the bishops to have power and wealth, they preach divine right to rule.
Some of that (how much?) trickled down to the masses as health care by the Church.
I was talking about the pictures that told Christian stories to illiterate people.
Context is everything, yes they told stories but the surrounding in which they were placed often made them directive rather than just informative.
I find churches are often beautiful buildings, but cannot overlook why there’s often so much gold stuff present. In the UK, with land no longer having much value of itself and the changes made by Henry and Cromwell, the CoE is generally much less inclined to a display of wealth and power.
Sunday before last we were invited and went along to the village RC church. The priest made us very welcome, but I couldn’t fail to notice the echoes of that earlier time. Different ways, sure, but different reasons too.
Happy faces are more convincing and inspire more confidence in the future than gloomy ones !
That may not have always been true.