MEDIAEVAL PAINTING blue, giving the effect of a diaper. The figures show dark upon the hght ground. Their flesh tones are but a trifle darker and warmer than the ground. The western transverse arch of the vaulting was adorned with twelve figures in pairs, some of which remain, each pair under canopies supported by green columns. The tracery of such of these canopies as are preserved is in outline on black, and the figures are painted on a delicate bluish grey ground. The figures themselves are nimbed and carry alternately an emblem and a scroll, the colours of their draperies being a dull green, dull purple, and a slaty blue. In all the groups of figures mentioned there is a great deal of delicate outlining both in the draperies and in the features. In fact, throughout these paintings, it is form, not colour, which is insisted upon, and the contrast in this respect between these subjects of the early fourteenth century and those in the same church of the late twelfth century, previously treated of, is very striking. Following down the course of time the next examples to be cited are the paintings of pictorial character, possibly executed about 1360, upon the walls of the church of West Somerton, lying between Martham Broad and the sea coast. This single-aisled church is rich in pictured walls, but the paintings which were uncovered in 1867 are in a greatly decayed condition. When revealed in that year there were to be seen on the north wall of the nave the Entry into Jerusalem, the Flagellation, and the Resurrection, and on the south wall, the Doom. The last-named picture appears to be the only one of which any copy has been made.^ It is very fragmentary, a large portion of both upper and lower parts having disappeared. It is situated between two of the windows, and occupies a space 12 feet in length, framed by a narrow border with a waved line upon it. The figures are painted upon a dark red ground sparsely powdered with white rosettes. In the centre of the composition was our Lord, seated upon the rainbow with the Earth beneath His feet ; His figure is unfortunately lost. On the right kneels in intercession the Blessed Virgin before her Divine Son, her right hand pressed to her bosom. Behind her, and supporting her, stands an angel. Another female figure which cannot be identified owing to its ruined condition, also kneeling and supported by an angel, balances that of the Virgin. Below and on either side of the picture stand the angels of the Judgment, robed and crowned, and blowing the trumpets of the Doom. Between them the dead of all qualities and conditions, some naked, others in their habits as they lived, kings and priests and peasants, are rising from the grave. If an opinion may be ventured from the slight illustration existing of this picture, it may be said that the composition is not wanting in a certain dignity and earnestness ; and that it is superior to others of the same subject of more pretension and of a later time. With the close of the fourteenth century examples of mural painting begin to multiply in number, though from the point of view of art they can scarcely be said to improve in quality. On the north wall of the church of Limpenhoe, near Reedham, in the valley of the Yare, was discovered in 1852 a series of three paintings possibly dating from the end of the century named, which represented the martyrdom of St. Catherine. The paintings occurred between the windows of the nave, and were bordered above and 1 tiorf. Arch. (1872), vii. 256. 535
