Midland Naturalist/Volume 01/Kempley Church, Gloucestershire

by John Henry Middleton

Kempley Church, Gloucestershire.^[1]

---

By J. Henry Middleton, Esq.

---

The Church at Kempley, in Gloucestershire, consists of a Norman nave and chancel, built probably at the end of the eleventh century: their sizes are roughly—nave, 34 feet by 19 feet; chancel, 18 feet by 14 feet, internal measurement. All the walls of this early part remain, with the west and south doors, the narrow chancel arch, and four of the original windows. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a western tower was added, a wooden porch built on to the south door, and two perpendicular two-light windows were inserted in the nave, probably in the place of older Norman ones.

The dedication of this church is not quite certain, but tradition ascribes it to the Blessed Virgin, and this view is supported by the legend on one of the bells, which is Dilige Virgo Pia quos congrego Virgo Maria. Another bell has the following legend:—Jesu campanam tibi semper protege sonam. Both these bells date from the reign of Edward III.

The chancel, where the best preserved paintings remain, is covered by a plain, circular barrel vault, built in rubble. This vault has nearly been the destruction of the chancel, by spreading and so pushing out the walls, which were without buttresses, as is usual in Norman work. It has, however, been lately shored up and made secure from outside. Such vaults as these are common in military and monastic buildings of the eleventh and twelfth centuries; but, except the White Chapel in the Tower of London, I do not remember another English instance of a church being so roofed.

The chancel arch, as well as the vault, is much injured and distorted by settlement, and a crack along the crown of the latter has seriously injured the paintings.

The whole wall surface of the chancel, in addition to the soffit of the vault, has been richly decorated with painting, and most of it still remains in a remarkably perfect condition, considering its great age. The comparative freshness of the colouring is owing to the whole surface having been thoroughly covered with repeated coats of whitewash, and thus preserved from the effects of light, and other sources of injury. This covering of whitewash we removed bit by bit with the greatest caution and deliberation in the winter of 1872, when the existence of these long forgotten paintings first came to light.^[2]

The paintings are executed on a single coat of stucco laid on the rubble wall, which is so rough and uneven inside that it cannot ever have been intended to be left bare; and I think there can be but little doubt that both the stucco and the pictures are contemporary with the building itself, i.e., somewhere near the year 1100 A.D.

With regard to the technical process by which these paintings were executed. I am convinced that they are not true Frescoes: that is, that they were not painted on the wet stucco with purely earthy Pigments and a lime medium: one reason being that the colour is little more than superficial, and has not sunk into and become incorporated with the stucco, as is the case with true Fresco. Another is the absence of "Fresco edges" as they are called, that is, the scarcely perceptible line that separates the patch of stucco laid one day from that of the next day; for, as it was necessary that the colours should be applied to perfectly wet and unset stucco, it was of course needful that no more should be applied to the wall than the artist could cover with one day's work, or in some cases even less. This being the case, then, that the paintings were executed on the finished and dry surface of the plaster, there remains no doubt that they are in some form of tempera, probably with a medium of egg and vinegar, or perhaps simply size. This latter process is sometimes wrongly called fresco, even by the Italians themselves, who distinguish it by calling it "Fresea secco," and the true Fresco, "Fresco buono;" but it is better to use the word in its true meaning as implying painting on wet or "fresh" plaster.

In the centre of the vault is a figure of Christ in Majesty, more than life size, seated upon a rainbow, and enclosed in a frame of glory; a cruciform nimbus surrounds his head, and resting on the left knee is a book or tablet, with the letters IHC XPC, for Iēsous Christos. The feet are towards the east, and below them, just outside the frame, is a large circle much injured by the crack in the vault. This circle represents the earth made Our Lord's footstool. On each side of this figure is the figure of a seraph, nimbed, with six wings, and bearing a scroll. On either side of the figure of Christ the symbols of the Evangelists are represented—the bull and the eagle on the south side, and the lion on the north side, all holding books. The fourth beast is very indistinct, and is too much injured to be made out. Over the head of Christ are painted the sun and moon—the sun being a yellow roundel surrounded with white rays, and the moon a blue crescent with a small circle inside it. At the sides of these great lights are the seven candlesticks, four on the north and three on the south side they are blue with white knops and have long tapering candles. Next come two more seraphs, holding books in one hand and small flags or lances with pennons in the other. Beyond these, and close to the chancel arch, we find, on the south side, St. Peter, nimbed, with a key in his right hand and a book in his left. On the north side a figure of the Blessed Virgin, carrying a book; she seems to have no nimbus, but her head is covered with a veil or hood, surmounted by a sort of mural crown.

All these figures are painted on a red field covering the top of the vault. This red field or broad band is bounded by a white stripe on each side, and is stopped at the east and west ends by bands of an interlaced pattern, which are carried all round the vault and walls against the end walls. The side walls of the chancel are each divided into two unequal parts by windows near the east end.

The northern window is very perfect. The inner and outer arches have bands of colour, and the splay of the jambs and arch is covered with a chess-board pattern in squares of red, blue, and white. The southern window is much injured, but there remains above it, as above the other, a painted canopy of walls and towers. To the west of the windows the wall space is covered on each side by six large arch-headed niches, in which are seated figures of the twelve Apostles. They are all nimbed, and hold books. St. Peter, who occupies the eastern-most niche on the north side, is distinguished by a large key, which he holds under his left arm. The others have no distinguishing symbol. They are not arranged in pairs, as is so often the case, but are all looking up towards the central figure of Christ. Below the feet of the Apostles there is an ornamental band or frieze, looking something like a rude inscription, but all painting below it is lost, if it ever existed.

Eastward of the two side windows are a pair of niches, rather wider than those occupied by the Apostles. In each is a figure without nimbus, and holding a staff in each hand, one resting on the shoulder and the other used as a support, suggesting the idea that these figures represent pilgrims. Both wear long tunics, with mantles fastened on the shoulder and the southern one has a hat of the usual pilgrim form.

The east end has one window with round arched head, concentric with the vault. Below it is a band of interlaced pattern, like that at the ends of the vault. Over this window are three roundels, each containing a half-length figure of a nimbed angel with a scroll, and on each side there has been a large arched niche. The northern one has been completely destroyed by a mural monument which was fixed there, but in the other niche is a very perfect figure of a bishop. He is habited in mass vestments, the right hand is raised in benediction and the left holds a pastoral staff. The chasuble is dark blue or purple, lined with yellow; it is short in front and long behind, as we find in other examples of the same date. There is a broad white orphrey down the front, with a diaper pattern embroidered on it. The dalmatic is white, and reaches to the feet, so that the alb and stole are not visible. The maniple is blue, and very narrow, with expanding ends of white, with a fringe on each, as on the stole of St. Thomas of Canterbury at Sens. It is worn on the wrist, instead of being held in the hand, as was the more ancient custom, this showing that this painting is not much earlier than the year 1100 A.D., as the change seems to have taken place in the latter half of the eleventh century. In early times the maniple was simply a napkin, and was used for wiping the priest's hands at the celebration of the mass. The mitre is pale red, not white as it generally is, and of the earliest form, exactly resembling these shown in Byzantine MSS, of the eighth to the tenth centuries; it seems to be worn over a sort of veil, which hangs dawn behind. At the feet of the bishop, on his right side, is a sort of cup or vase, probably intended for a chalice. On the left is a yellow roundel enclosing a blue cross, which may be a dedication cross; or again, this object may represent a paten.

The coloured decoration is carried over the chancel arch, which is in two plain square orders. The outer order is ornamented with a pattern of interlacing zig-zags, the inner one has ten yellow roundels rendered with red.

Considerable damage has been done to the side walls by two priest's doors, which have been broken through the wall, and by the insertion of a rude arch-headed recess, which was either an aumbry or an Easter sepulchre.

The only painting in the nave which appears to be contemporaneous with those in the chancel is the large one over the chancel arch, representing Christ in Majesty, and the Last Judgment. It is much damaged, and the upper part of it is still concealed by the modern ceiling. The figure of Christ, however, and of Archangels blowing trumpets, are still to be distinguished.

The other paintings are probably not earlier than the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. On the jamb at the small Norman window, in the north wall, there are figures of St. Michael and a female saint. Between it and the next window there is a curious sort of wheel, enclosing ten circles, the meaning of which is not easy to make out.

On one of the jambs of the southern perpendicular window there is the figure of an Archbishop, and the wall west of it has a number of course paintings, which are of a still later date. Paintings like these later ones are far from rare in English churches; but I believe we might search in vain for another instance of paintings like those in the chancel and ever the chancel arch, of a date so early as the beginning of the twelfth century, and with their unity of motive and completeness of design. The nearest to these in date are, I believe, the paintings on the chancel walls of Chaldon Church, in Surrey, representing the Scala humanæ salvutonis, but they are, at least, half a century later than the examples before us.

It will be worth our while to compare a very interesting passage in Durandus' "Ratio Divinorum Officiorum," I., iii., 7—12, which, omitting the twenty-four elders, might almost be a description of these paintings. The great work of Durandus was perhaps better known and more widely circulated than that of any other author of the early middle ages, and there can be but little doubt that whoever executed these paintings was well acquainted with the following passage:—

"Sometimes Christ is depicted as Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, saw Him, namely on a hill, and under his feet as it were a work of sapphire, and a serene sky. And since, as St. Luke says, 'There they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory and majesty,' therefore sometimes Angels are painted surrounding Him, who ever serve and wait on Him, and they are depicted with six wings, according to the words of Essias, 'The seraphim were standing near Him, the one had six wings and the other six wings, and with twain they covered his face, with twain his feet, and with twain they did fly.' Angels are also depicted as in the flower of youth, for they never grow old, sometimes also the Archangel Michael is painted near them, treading the dragon under his feet, according to the words of St. John in the Apocalypse, 'There was war in Heaven, Michael fought with the dragon,' which war denotes a division between the angels, the establishment of the good, the ruin of the wicked, or in the visible church the persecution of the faithful. Sometimes also there are painted round about him the twenty-four elders, according to the visions of the same John, in white robes, and crowns of gold. Sometimes also are included in the paintings the living creatures according to the vision of Ezechiel, and the same John: 'On the right hand the likeness of a man, and that of a lion, and the likeness of an ox on the left, and that of an eagle over all the four.' These are the four Evangelists, wherefore they are painted with books at their feet. . . . Sometimes also there are painted round about, or rather underneath, the Apostles, having long hair like Nazarites. . . . Moreover the Divine Majesty is sometimes painted with a closed book in His hands, because no one was found worthy to open that book, except the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. And sometimes He is painted with an open book, so that everyone may read in it, because He is the Light of the World, and the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the Book of Life."

---

1. Read before the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, on May 28th, 1876, on the occasion of their visit to Kempley Church,
2. The discovery of the paintings was brought about through the thorough examination of the walling previous to the proposed restoration of the church, which Earl Beauchamp, the patron of the living, had determined to commence. Mr. Middleton, the Architect engaged for that purpose, on discovering the existence of the paintings, strongly advised that the restoration should not be gone on with, but that the church should he shored up, the whitewash carefully removed, and the surface of the stucco covered with a solution of water glass to preserve the colouring.—Eds. M.N.