MEDIAEVAL PAINTING 



soffits, which unfortunately could not be examined. The patterns were as 

 follows : 



1. On a green ground red roundels containing white lions, alternating 



with yellow roundels containing black eagles. 



2. On a blue ground red quatrefoils margined in white. 



3. On a red ground white lions facing right and left alternately. 



4. On a brownish black ground red hons. 



In all cases the roundels, lions, etc., are divided from each other by 

 upright white Hnes. 



5. On a ground of red and white chevrons, blue panels containing yellow 



quatrefoils in which were grotesque busts. 



These beams were, with very Httle doubt, some of the rafters of the flat 

 roof of the Prior's hall. If the spaces between them were as fully coloured as 

 their sides the whole effect of the ceiling must have been rich indeed, 

 approaching an almost Oriental intricacy of colour and form.i 



Entries in the sacrist's rolls of the cathedral under the years 1277-79 

 mention several painters, and this work may well have been executed by them.* 



An almost complete scheme of decoration is to be found in the church of 

 West Walton, near Wisbech, a good specimen of the architecture of the 

 thirteenth century. The walls are grounded in a buff tint covered by a 

 simple masonry pattern ; upon this in the spandrils of the nave arcade were 

 painted sexfoils outlined with red lines and a band of blue or black dots. The 

 ground of the sexfoils was red, having a buff disk in the centre, and the cusps 

 ended in large fleurs-de-lis. Each sexfoil was surrounded by a circular band 

 of red lines divided into squares each enclosing a flower. Between the 

 windows of the clerestory, on the same masonry pattern ground, are still to be 

 seen representations of hangings — flat rectangular panels of tapestry covered 

 by geometric diapers which strongly recall both in colour and design the tile 

 pavements of the period. A few of the more elaborate may be here noted : 



1. Red and buff hexagons in alternate rows. 



2. Horizontal bands of red and buff; on the former pairs of doves in 



buff ; on the latter red fleurs-de-lis. 



3. On a red ground rows of griffins in buff alternating with rows of buff 



fleurs-de-lis. 



All the tapestries have narrow borders of red and dark blue. The 

 patterns are said to have been scratched upon the plastering and then filled in 

 with colour.^ The shafts of the nave arcade are of purbeck marble, the dull 

 greyish black of which was an element of considerable importance in the 

 colour scheme, which was of the simplest description — red and dull blue or 

 black upon a ground of buff. In effect, when perfect, the arrangement must 

 have been like much architectural work of the period, dry and rigid and 

 wanting in the colour of an earlier and the graceful forms of a later age. 



For a specimen of work of a somewhat later date, that of the early 

 years of the fourteenth century, reference must again be made to paintings 

 remaining in Norwich Cathedral. The chapel of the Relics, formed in one 

 of the bays of the north aisle of the presbytery of that church, exhibits on its 



1 For illustration of these beams see 'Norfolk Anharology, xi. 179, i8l. ^ See p. 23. 



' For illustrations and description of these paintings see Gothic Ornaments shown from Existing Authorities 

 by James K. Colling, Architect, i. plates 58, 62, 63, and The Builder, 1864, p. 724. 



533 



