MEDIAEVAL PAINTING 



blue, giving the effect of a diaper. The figures show dark upon the hght 

 ground. Their flesh tones are but a trifle darker and warmer than the 

 ground. The western transverse arch of the vaulting was adorned with 

 twelve figures in pairs, some of which remain, each pair under canopies 

 supported by green columns. The tracery of such of these canopies as are 

 preserved is in outline on black, and the figures are painted on a delicate 

 bluish grey ground. The figures themselves are nimbed and carry alternately 

 an emblem and a scroll, the colours of their draperies being a dull green, 

 dull purple, and a slaty blue. In all the groups of figures mentioned there 

 is a great deal of delicate outlining both in the draperies and in the features. 

 In fact, throughout these paintings, it is form, not colour, which is insisted 

 upon, and the contrast in this respect between these subjects of the early 

 fourteenth century and those in the same church of the late twelfth century, 

 previously treated of, is very striking. 



Following down the course of time the next examples to be cited are 

 the paintings of pictorial character, possibly executed about 1360, upon the 

 walls of the church of West Somerton, lying between Martham Broad and 

 the sea coast. This single-aisled church is rich in pictured walls, but the 

 paintings which were uncovered in 1867 are in a greatly decayed condition. 

 When revealed in that year there were to be seen on the north wall of the 

 nave the Entry into Jerusalem, the Flagellation, and the Resurrection, and 

 on the south wall, the Doom. The last-named picture appears to be the 

 only one of which any copy has been made.^ It is very fragmentary, a large 

 portion of both upper and lower parts having disappeared. It is situated 

 between two of the windows, and occupies a space 12 feet in length, framed 

 by a narrow border with a waved line upon it. The figures are painted 

 upon a dark red ground sparsely powdered with white rosettes. In the 

 centre of the composition was our Lord, seated upon the rainbow with the 

 Earth beneath His feet ; His figure is unfortunately lost. On the right 

 kneels in intercession the Blessed Virgin before her Divine Son, her right 

 hand pressed to her bosom. Behind her, and supporting her, stands an 

 angel. Another female figure which cannot be identified owing to its 

 ruined condition, also kneeling and supported by an angel, balances that of 

 the Virgin. Below and on either side of the picture stand the angels of the 

 Judgment, robed and crowned, and blowing the trumpets of the Doom. 

 Between them the dead of all qualities and conditions, some naked, others in 

 their habits as they lived, kings and priests and peasants, are rising from the 

 grave. If an opinion may be ventured from the slight illustration existing 

 of this picture, it may be said that the composition is not wanting in a 

 certain dignity and earnestness ; and that it is superior to others of the same 

 subject of more pretension and of a later time. 



With the close of the fourteenth century examples of mural painting 

 begin to multiply in number, though from the point of view of art they can 

 scarcely be said to improve in quality. On the north wall of the church of 

 Limpenhoe, near Reedham, in the valley of the Yare, was discovered in 

 1852 a series of three paintings possibly dating from the end of the century 

 named, which represented the martyrdom of St. Catherine. The paintings 

 occurred between the windows of the nave, and were bordered above and 



1 tiorf. Arch. (1872), vii. 256. 



535 



