Sunday Feature: The Devastation of British Art

Diarmaid MacCulloch charts the destruction of religious art during the English Reformation, from the reign of Henry VIII to the end of the Civil War. He assesses the complex set of motivations which drove the iconoclasts to tear down statues, dismantle rood screens and smash stained glass in churches across the country. Diarmaid visits Winchester Cathedral, where the great rood screen was attacked and the stained glass later smashed by Oliver Cromwell's soldiers. Academic Philip Lindley and sculptor Richard Deacon help to explain the power of religious images and the corresponding fear they induced in iconoclasts. The Reverend Canon Doctor Roland Riem of Winchester and artist Sophie Hacker talk about the place of images in today's churches and cathedrals. Diarmaid also considers whether the fanaticism of the Reformation reformers bears any relation to more recent iconoclastic attacks and Tate Britain curator Tabitha Barber reflects on the legacy of this iconoclastic movement