MEDIAEVAL PAINTING A N account of the remains of Mediaeval painting in the county of / % Norfolk is, in point of fact, an epitome of the art as practised / % throughout England in the middle ages, but the reason for the introduction of the present paper in this place lies in this, that in none of the other English counties do the relics of the art exist in such numbers, or of so varied a kind. The examples of painting to be described may be broadly divided into two classes. The first includes pictorial representations of events in sacred history, of legends of saints, or of single figures of saints, and of sacred allegories. Under this head may be placed most of the mural paintings and the work upon the screens. The second class comprises all purely decorative ornamentation such as that which covers a certain number of church roofs in the district in question, and which also adorns the upper divisions and framework of the screens. It must be premised that the examples to be treated of are only to be found in the churches, for outside of them painting practically did not exist. The pictorial representations of scriptural and other subjects on the walls of the churches are often of the rudest character. There seldom appears to be any definite scheme of arrangement, nor are the compositions always placed within definite boundaries, but are often executed somewhat at random on any convenient wall surface. The more ambitious attempts, however, are some- times confined within bounding lines of simple bands of colour or of scroll work, and in the later examples, in which the details become more realistic both in figures and backgrounds, this is certainly the case. Taken as a whole, from the point of view of art, the waU paintings of the Norfolk churches leave much to be desired ; nevertheless, they are interesting for their narcetiy the direct way in which they tell a story, and now and again for a certain purity of line and delicacy of drawing, especially in the draperies of the figures. Their value archaeologicallv, however, cannot be called in question. Traces of paintings have been found on the walls of over fifty churches in Norfolk, but anyone who wishes to study those traces on the spot will, in very many instances, be disappointed. The rage for so-called 'restora- tion,* and the carelessness or misdirected zeal of incumbent or churchwarden. Besides information derived from personal observarion, the principal worb consulted for the following account are Tke Arckatohgual Journal, vi. & xii., Korfilk Anbcttkgj ; Blomefield's Hist. efNerf.; J List of Buildings in Great Britain and Inland having rr.ural and otktr painted decorations, iSc, issued by the Science and Art Department, South Kensington, edited by C. E. Keyser, M.A., F.S.A., ed. 3, l8S3,and Emblems of Saints, by the Rev. F. C. Husenbeth, D.D., V.G., ed. 3, edited by the Rev. A. Jcisopp, D.D., (Xorf. and Norw. Arch. Soc.). Information has also been obtained from the Sacrist rolls of Norwich Cathedral and from the Dawson Turner Collection of drawings, &c., illustrating Blomefield's Hist, of Kerf. Add. MSS. B.M. 23024-23051. 2 529 67
