A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



hands and feet, is however very feeble even in the best examples. In many 

 instances, the heads are in proportion to the rest of the body with the 

 features fairly well drawn, but occasionally, even in screens of importance, 

 thev are disproportionately large. 



The lower division of the screens has been dealt with, but it must not 

 be forgotten that the traceries of the upper parts, when they exist (which 

 is not very often the case), are in most instances fully covered with gold and 

 delicate ornament in colour. Of the comparatively perfect screens remaining 

 in the county, that at Ranworth (PI. ix.) best exemplifies what such features 

 of a church were like in their pristine condition, although in the quahty 

 of its paintings it is not equal to others which might be named. The 

 screen at Worstead, an indifferently painted but large example, the finer 

 one at Cawston, and that at Aylsham, of which only the lower panels remain, 

 may be noted for the gesso work upon them. This substance, which has 

 previously been spoken of in the description of the Norwich tabula^ is a species 

 of plaster, reddened as a ground for gold, and is exceedingly hard and tough. 

 It was applied in a thin layer upon the flat faces of the mullions forming the 

 main divisions of a screen, and was evidently stamped when in a plastic con- 

 dition with moulds, the patterns of which exhibit flat niches filled with tiny 

 figures alternating with traceries. The moulds employed at Cawston were on 

 an average 6 inches long, as may be seen by the traces of the joinings in the 

 gesso. As has been mentioned, backgrounds in this material of figures in the 

 panels still remain, and the screens last mentioned afford good examples of 

 this sort of work. In these cases the layer of gesso was exceedingly thin, and 

 the impressions of patterns upon it, if the patterns were formed by stamping, 

 have much the effect of an engraving. The figure surrounded by such a 

 ground w^ould seem to have been outlined first, and then the layer of gesso 

 applied about it and trimmed to the outline either before or after being 

 impressed with the moulds. The gesso work is always gilt (PI. x). 



The processes employed in painting can be fairly made out. The ground 

 of the panel to be worked on (all the painting was on oak boards) was pre- 

 pared with several layers of gesso mixed with parchment size, which, when 

 rubbed down, presented to the painter a smooth white field on which he 

 proceeded to outline his figure in strong black line. The grounds, whether 

 in colour or in gesso were then applied, and the figure was carried forward. 

 It is by no means certain what was the medium employed in these paintings, 

 whether the colours were mixed with oil, or whether being ground in water, 

 size or white of egg or some other glutinous medium was added to bind the 

 pigments. Oil may have been employed, especially in the sixteenth century, 

 but after a certain lapse of years it is impossible to tell which of the two 

 mediums, tempera or oil, has been used. There is an indication that a glue 

 or size derived from fish may have been employed by certain painters in the 

 neighbouring county of Suffolk, w^ho were engaged upon the adornment of 

 the chapel of Mettingham College in that county.^ In the fabric accounts 

 of this college occurs an entry under the date 1417-18 that Thomas Barsham 

 of Yarmouth, who appears to have been a painter and carver, received ' pro 

 soundis piscium ijd.', and in the same accounts under date 1418— 19 Reginald 



1 ' Original documents : Extracts from the Ancient Accounts of Mettingham College, Suffolk.' Communi- 

 cated by the Rev. C. R. Manning in Arch. Jount. (1849), vi. 65, and in note p. 67. 



550 



