![]() We encounter more images in a day than a medieval villager would have seen in a lifetime. Today we take reading, writing and visual stimulation for granted. ![]() Sir Roy Strong (5) says “In order to comprehend the importance of images we need to understand the medieval mindset. Great Bowden Doom PaintingĮarly wall paintings initially beautified the church and developed into a means of teaching illiterate congregations. ![]() The master painters had apprentices who would work under their direction. Some travelled on the Continent and brought back designs. There were royal painters such as Hugh of St Albans and the multi-talented Matthew Paris, sacrist of St Albans, who also was a historian, chronicler, goldsmith and illuminator. Guides or manuals existed and these set out schemes and conventions for the painters to follow. As with secular art there were various schools, the main ones being Canterbury, Winchester, Lewes and Norwich. Often the painters were monks or closely associated with the monasteries and there were journeymen painters. It had the result of bringing the black pigment to the surface. This can be seen at Longthorpe Tower near Peterborough where wax was initially used to preserve the paintings. Sometimes the painter would use black as an under coat to give depth to the colours, especially the flesh. The paintings were usually outlined in red or scored into the plaster. Brushes were made from squirrel tails or hogs’ bristles. Vermillion and azurite and even gold leaf were used, but usually found only in major churches or royal chapels because they were expensive. The painters mixed their own pigments using easily obtained oxides of iron, copper, lead, and lime wash, lamp black red and yellow ochre. It was better suited to the English climate, but less enduring. It was a more flexible way of painting than the formal fresco, which had to be done in small sections. The plaster was coated with lime putty this was then dampened before colours were applied. This bonded together to make a surface which lasts well. On the Continent the fresco technique was used. Before mentioning these it would be useful to look at the general background to church wall paintings in order to understand what is to be seen. Clive Rouse (4) as having Pre-Reformation wall paintings and a few others have fragments still visible. Eight churches in Leicestershire and Rutland are listed by wall paintings expert Dr E. Of Leicestershire and Rutland (3) Pesvner merely comments that wall paintings are not frequent. We need to develop for a wider public our approach to churches as expressions of past human beings”. “Seldom are we ever given a glimpse of the building as the historic microcosm over the centuries of a community……. The need to understand the full history of churches is echoed by Sir Roy Strong (2) in his Preface to A Little History of the English Country Church: If we had all that crowded the walls we might like some churches less, but we would understand them better“ “The absence of Wall Paintings from medieval churches (and indeed houses) is much to be deplored. Pevsner (1) wrote of Northamptonshire’s wall paintings: Church wall paintings in and beyond the county have remained an interest since then. I realised that a number mentioned in Arthur Mee’s and Nickolas Pevsner‘s books about the county were no longer visible, therefore I decided in 1990 to make a complete record of what remained. My initial recording of church wall paintings focused on Northamptonshire.
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