WALL PAINTINGS

Evening Star, Issue 22540, 7 January 1937, Page 12

WALL PAINTINGS

DISCOVERY IN THE ABBEY I. - SIX CENTURIES OLD During the cleaning operations that have, been proceeding at Westminster Abbey some medieval wall paintings have come to light which must rank among the most important discoveries made in recent years, writes Professor E. W. Tristram in ‘ The Times.’ _ A considerable amount of colour and gilding was found about three years ago on the figures of censing angels and of St. Edward and the Pilgrim, which are carved high up on the south wall of the south transept. Evidences of colour treatment which appeared after these, traces hadi been found gave some promise of further discoveries, but it. was not until the walls at the back of the arcading which surrounds the lower part of the transept were reached that the promise was amply fulfilled. On the south wall outside the chapel of St. Faith, two ' subjects were uncovered, monumental in scale, and undoubtedly outstanding examples of the work of the Westminster School in the latter part of the thirteenth century. Traces of colour in other bays,. and gold and colour on the arch mouldings, provide evidence which show that these subjects were part only of a scheme of painting which at that time embraced at least a considerable part of this transept. NINE FEET HIGH. - One of these two paintings depicts St, Christopher, a standing figure over nine feet high, clothed in a tunic and mantle, the colour scheme being of purple, blue, and yellow, on a bright green background. On the shoulder of the saint is the Child Christ holding an apple. In a partly mutilated description the following words are decipherable;—“ Xpoforum quia . . . quem portat hinc facit omnipotens.” The other subject, the Incredulity of St. Thomas, is executed in purples and greens on a vermillion background diapered with crimson fleurs-de-lis. Christ, bearing the vexillum, places the hand of the kneeling figure of St. Thomas against the wound in His side. The figure of Christ is of monumental aiae, being, like that of St. Christopher, nine feet in height. Even after the lapse of six centuries and a-half the paintings are well preserved, especially in the case of the Incredulity of St. Thomas, which is in a remarkable state of preservation. Its colours are still rich and luminous, and orignally must have been brilliant in hue. At the period when the work was executed, about 1280, the .painter of greatest ’ importance was Master Walter, of Durham. It is known that he worked in the Painted Chamber of Westminster Palace from about the year 1262, and that he decorated the Coronation Chair about 1300-1301. He is also said to have painted the tester above the tomb of Queen Eleanor, and it is probable that the subject on the base of the tomb of which some traces of colour remain, was from his brush. THE KING’S PAINTER. There are grounds for the supposition that he painted the fine figures of Virtues which formerly existed on the splays of the windows in the famous Painted Chamber. Faithful records of these were fortunately preserved, and reconstructions of them mav he seen in the House of Commons. Resemblance not only in general style, but in certain details, between these paintings and those recently found lend considerable force to the supposition that in these new discoveries in the Abbey Church we have examples of "the handiwork of Master Walter, who held the office of King’s Painter, and was one of the most famous of English craftsmen in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, a period when the influence of English work was extensively felt on the Continent.