regular folds stiffly treated. Above this dado ranges of pictures with figure-subjects were painted in tiers one above the other, each picture frequently surrounded by a painted frame with arch and gable of architectural design.
Fig. 9.—Wall-Painting of the 13th century. “Masonry pattern.”
Painted bands of chevron or other geometrical ornament till the 13th century, and flowing ornament afterwards, usually divide the tiers of pictures horizontally and form the top and bottom boundaries of the dado. In the case of a church, the end Walls usually have figures to a larger scale. On the east wall of the nave over the chancel arch there was generally a large painting of the “Doom” or Last Judgment. One of the commonest subjects is a colossal figure of St Christopher (fig. 10) usually on the nave wall opposite the principal entrance—selected because the sight of a picture of this saint, was supposed to bring good luck for the rest of the day. Figures were also often painted on the jambs of the windows and on the piers and soffit of the arches, especially that opening into the chancel.
Fig. 10.—Wall-Painting of St Christopher. (Large life-size.)
The little Norman church at Kempley in Gloucestershire (date about 1100) has perhaps the best-preserved specimen of the complete early decoration of a chancel.[1] The north and south walls are occupied by figures of the twelve apostles in architectural niches, six on each side. The east wall had single figures of saints at the sides of the central window, and the stone barrel vault is covered with a representation of St John’s apocalyptic vision—Christ in majesty surrounded by the evangelistic beasts, the seven candlesticks and other figures. The Chancel arch itself and the jambs and mouldings of the windows have stiff geometrical designs, and over the arch, towards the nave, is a large picture of the “Doom.” The whole scheme is very complete, no part of the internal plaster or stonework being undecorated with colour. Though the drawing is rude, the figures and their drapery are treated broadly and with dignity. Simple earth colours are used, painted in tempera on a plain white ground, which covers alike both the plaster of the rough walls and the smooth stone of the arches and jambs.
In the 13th century the painters of England reached a high point of artistic power and technical skill, so that paintings were produced by native artists equal, if not superior, to those of the same period anywhere on the Continent. The central paintings on the walls of the chapter-house and on the retable of the high altar of Westminster Abbey are not surpassed by any of the smaller works even of such men as Cimabue and Duccio di Buoninsegna, who were living when these Westminster paintings were executed. Unhappily, partly through the poverty and anarchy brought about by the French wars and the Wars of the Roses, the development of art in England made little progress after the beginning of the 14th century, and it was not till a time when the renaissance of art in Italy had fallen into decay that its influence reached the British shores.
Fig. 11.—15th-century English Painting—St John the Evangelist.
In the 15th century some beautiful work, somewhat affected by Flemish influence, was produced in England (fig. 11), chiefly in the form of figures painted on the oak panels of chancel and chapel screens, especially in Norfolk and Suffolk; but these cannot be said to rival the works of the Van Eycks and other painters of that time in Flanders. To return to the 13th century, the culminating period of English art in painting and sculpture, much was owed to Henry III.’s love for and patronage of the fine arts; he employed a large number of painters to decorate his various castles and palaces, especially the palace of Westminster, one large hall of which was known as the “painted
- ↑ See Archaeologia, vol. xlvi. (1880).
