Editing Salisbury Cathedral (section)

===West front===
{{main|Table of the Statuary of the West Front of Salisbury Cathedral}}
[[File:Catedral de Salisbury, Salisbury, Inglaterra, 2014-08-12, DD 56.JPG|thumb|right|The west front.]]
The west front is of the screen-type, clearly deriving from that at [[Wells Cathedral|Wells]]. It is composed of a stair turret at each extremity, with two niched buttresses nearer the centre line supporting the large central triple window. The stair turrets are topped with spirelets, and the central section is topped by a [[gable]] which contains four [[lancet windows]] topped by two round [[quatrefoil]] windows surmounted by a [[mandorla]] containing [[Christ in Majesty]]. At ground level there is a principal door flanked by two smaller doors. The whole is highly decorated with quatrefoil motifs, columns, trefoil motifs and bands of [[diapering]].

The west front was almost certainly constructed at the same time as the cathedral.<ref>{{cite book| last1=Tatton-Brown| first1=Tim| last2=Crook| first2=John| date=25 June 2009| title=Salisbury Cathedral: The Making of a Medieval Masterpiece| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pxI3AQAAIAAJ&q=west+front| publisher=Scala| isbn=978-1-85759-550-5| page=70|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This is apparent from the way in which the windows coincide with the interior spaces. The entire facade is about {{convert|108|ft|m}} high and wide. It lacks full-scale towers and/or spires as can be seen, for example at Wells, Lincoln, [[Lichfield Cathedral|Lichfield]], etc.<ref>{{cite book| last1=Rodwell| first1=Warwick| last2=Bentley| first2=James| year=1984| title=Our Christian Heritage| publisher=George Philip| isbn=978-0540010783| page=[https://archive.org/details/ourchristianheri00warw/page/109 109]| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/ourchristianheri00warw/page/109}}</ref> The façade was disparaged by [[Alec Clifton-Taylor]], who considered it the least successful of the English screen facades and a travesty of its prototype (Wells).  He found the composition to be uncoordinated, and the Victorian statuary "poor and insipid".<ref>{{cite book| last=Clifton-Taylor| first=Alec| year=1970| title=The Cathedrals of England| publisher=Thames & Hudson| page=105| isbn=9780809617685| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KeDVAAAAMAAJ&q=salisbury|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The front accommodates over 130 shallow niches of varying sizes, 73 of which contain a statue. The line of niches extends round the turrets to the north, south and east faces. There are five levels of niches (not including the mandorla) which show, from the top, angels and archangels, [[Old Testament]] patriarchs, apostles and evangelists, martyrs, doctors and philosophers and, on the lower level, royalty, priests and worthy people connected with the cathedral. The majority of the statues were placed during the middle of the 19th century, however seven are from the 14th century and several have been installed within the last decade.