MEDIAEVAL PAINTING 



overcoming the monster with his lance ; the view is borne out by the 

 circumstance that the champion is represented as having drawn his sword, 

 and he is preparing to deal a heavy blow with it. The ornamentation is 

 profuse, the red cross of St. George glows on the breast of the saint, and a 

 series of small shields with the same device are apparent. The Lybian 

 princess Cleodolinda kneels on a rock, to the right holding a lamb by a 

 ribbon. In a cavern underneath her are seen the progeny of the scaly 

 monster. ... At the top of the picture appear the King and Queen of 

 Selene, her parents, as if looking out from a tower within the city. . . . 



Beneath the painting is part of an inscription: "Pray for the soul of ," which 



may have recorded the death of the donor, but it is to be regretted that the 

 name is now irrecoverably lost. . . . The extreme height of the painting is 

 17 feet and the width 9 feet 9I inches. . . . The parish authorities have 

 thought fit to oil and restore it by repainting some portions.' 



The description would apply almost as well to the Witton painting, 

 which is ascribed to the beginning of the fifteenth century. This at Norwich 

 must have been executed towards the latter part of that century, perhaps in 

 the reign of Edward IV. The cult of St. George flourished in Norwich 

 over a considerable period, and the Guild named after him had great influence 

 and power in the internal affairs of that city. 



It would take up too much space, and be needless to note further 

 instances of the wall paintings of the fifteenth century, especially as the art 

 of painting received a greater development upon the screens of the East 

 Anglian churches than upon their walls in this period, and it is to these 

 rather than to the wall paintings we must turn to watch its further progress. 

 Before doing so, however, and as an introduction to the subject of the screen 

 paintings, it is necessary to give some consideration to the traces of the 

 painter's art to be found on church furniture of the latter part of the four- 

 teenth century yet existing in Norfolk. For instance, in the church of 

 St. Michael at Plea in Norwich, worked up in the modern reredos of the 

 altar, are to be seen portions of two painted panels representing the Betrayal 

 and the Crucifixion. The figures are delicately executed, and the back- 

 grounds are of stamped and gilded gesso work. The date of these fragments 

 may very well be late in the century just named, and they are possibly con- 

 temporary with a work of far more consequence, viz., a ' table ' or reredos 

 preserved in the cathedral church of the same city (PI. iii-v). This is a work 

 of capital importance, and if ever any full history, or one worthy the name, is 

 written on medieval painting in this country, the description and illustration 

 of it will occupy a prominent place, owing to the extreme rarity of such 

 remains, and, it should be added, the beauty of the example in question. 

 Mutilated and battered, it was rescued from base uses in 1847, and is now 

 taken care of in the ambulatory of the apse of the cathedral. Formed of oak 

 boards, it is framed into five panels enclosed by mouldings, a flat band with 

 further mouldings surrounding the whole. All the upper portion is wanting. 

 The subjects painted in the panels, commencing on the left, are the Flagella- 

 tion, our Lord bearing the Cross, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the 

 Ascension. The centre panel showing the Crucifixion was taller than the 

 others, rising above the straight upper line of the frame, the band and mould- 

 ings of which, no doubt, were carried round it. The compositions are 



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