Censing Angel
Brent Eleigh, Suffolk
During the restoration of the interior of the Church in February 1960, and when the walls were being scraped down, traces of colour were found of the original plaster, together with fragments of Wall Paintings. Members of the Wall Painting Committee of the Central Council for the Care of Churches inspected them and asked for them to be uncovered in order to find out their extent.
Over the Vestry door and behind the Royal Arms were the remains of a painting of St Christopher. The wall surface was so bad and the painting so damaged, that it was found to be not worth preserving.
On the North Wall, to the left of the War Memorial tablet, a prayer or text was uncovered. Only a few words and letters are legible but it has been left uncovered.
The major paintings are on the East Wall of the Church, though those to the north and south of the East Window were much damaged when the window was constructed in about 1857. Prior to this there was no East window, as the old library was built against the outside of the East Wall.
This series, one of the most important in England, was discovered in 1960, uncovered and consolidated by Mrs Eve Baker. ARCA. There are three paintings and their relationship to one another is not too easy to work out.
Behind the altar is the only medieval wall-painted altar-piece in situ in England. It consists of the
Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John, the three figures painted with grace and simplicity in red earth colours against a plain earth background, the whole outlined by a rectangular frame. The survival of this image, virtually intact and in particular the completeness even of the three faces is a marvel. The
14th c. to which this painting belongs, was the last period when high quality might be expected even in country churches. The figures are among the most beautiful surviving from that time.
When the panelling was removed from the wall, a text from St John (John 6.55) was found painted in black and white over the whole of the original Reredos. Through the painting of the text shadowy figures could be seen underneath it; and when the text was removed this lovely painting came to light. Photographs of the text have been taken as a record The remains of the black and white border of the text can be seen at the top of the Reredos painting.
To the north of the altar are the outlines of two kneeling and censing angels, once in attendance upon a carved figure, doubtless of the Virgin and Child, for which the space for the pedestal and the place where the lower part of the figure touched the wall, are voided in the otherwise uniform background. This was a uniform turquoise, which survives where applique gilt stars protected it.
Elsewhere it has darkened, not in the post Reformation period centuries, but during the more than 200 Medieval years when it was exposed to, above all, candle grease. The stars would have been torn off when the whole wall was whitewashed at the Reformation. It might be possible to restore the blue to its original colour but, in that case, the stars would no longer show and the angels would be much less evident. It is likely that this scheme is earlier than the altar piece in the middle. The blue background appears to extend further than the altar pieces border. In any case, the appearance of the angels with their concave faces and extremely angular wrists depends upon the convention established in the second half of the 13th century.
To the South of the altar is the most fragmentary, but, perhaps the most important painting of the three. lt represrents a most unusual version of the Harrowing of Hell. Christ, bearing the Vexillum is stretching out his hand in the usual way to pull Adam and his companions from Hell. The hands and one of the feet of Adam, and the edge of what may be Adam's halo, with which he is commonly adorned, can be made out. Trees, a bird and so on around the Christ and above Hell's mouth can be discovered. There are three features of great iconographic interest:
(1) The blood flows from the side of Christ. The intention of this motive is perfectly comprehensible in this context- by his blood are the dead saved. It could not be imagined in a representation of the Nole me Tangere. It might be possible in a Doubting Thomas but, in that case, there would not be the indications of the outside world which normally accompany a Harrowing of
(2) Christ treads on Adam's foot.
(3) The donor of the picture, a tonsured priest, appears in the lower south corner of the picture. He has an inscription reading: +RICA and beside him is wine barrel or jar. The Lombardic script of the inscription suggests a latish C13th date which is, in this case, certain, since the further leg of Adam is now covered by the frame of the central subject. That central subject is certainly C14th, so this must have been a generation old and no longer valued when it was obscured, Little though there is of it now, there can be no doubt the figure of Christ was once of very high quality.
stepneyrobarts.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/brent-eleigh-suffol...
Censing Angel
Brent Eleigh, Suffolk
During the restoration of the interior of the Church in February 1960, and when the walls were being scraped down, traces of colour were found of the original plaster, together with fragments of Wall Paintings. Members of the Wall Painting Committee of the Central Council for the Care of Churches inspected them and asked for them to be uncovered in order to find out their extent.
Over the Vestry door and behind the Royal Arms were the remains of a painting of St Christopher. The wall surface was so bad and the painting so damaged, that it was found to be not worth preserving.
On the North Wall, to the left of the War Memorial tablet, a prayer or text was uncovered. Only a few words and letters are legible but it has been left uncovered.
The major paintings are on the East Wall of the Church, though those to the north and south of the East Window were much damaged when the window was constructed in about 1857. Prior to this there was no East window, as the old library was built against the outside of the East Wall.
This series, one of the most important in England, was discovered in 1960, uncovered and consolidated by Mrs Eve Baker. ARCA. There are three paintings and their relationship to one another is not too easy to work out.
Behind the altar is the only medieval wall-painted altar-piece in situ in England. It consists of the
Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John, the three figures painted with grace and simplicity in red earth colours against a plain earth background, the whole outlined by a rectangular frame. The survival of this image, virtually intact and in particular the completeness even of the three faces is a marvel. The
14th c. to which this painting belongs, was the last period when high quality might be expected even in country churches. The figures are among the most beautiful surviving from that time.
When the panelling was removed from the wall, a text from St John (John 6.55) was found painted in black and white over the whole of the original Reredos. Through the painting of the text shadowy figures could be seen underneath it; and when the text was removed this lovely painting came to light. Photographs of the text have been taken as a record The remains of the black and white border of the text can be seen at the top of the Reredos painting.
To the north of the altar are the outlines of two kneeling and censing angels, once in attendance upon a carved figure, doubtless of the Virgin and Child, for which the space for the pedestal and the place where the lower part of the figure touched the wall, are voided in the otherwise uniform background. This was a uniform turquoise, which survives where applique gilt stars protected it.
Elsewhere it has darkened, not in the post Reformation period centuries, but during the more than 200 Medieval years when it was exposed to, above all, candle grease. The stars would have been torn off when the whole wall was whitewashed at the Reformation. It might be possible to restore the blue to its original colour but, in that case, the stars would no longer show and the angels would be much less evident. It is likely that this scheme is earlier than the altar piece in the middle. The blue background appears to extend further than the altar pieces border. In any case, the appearance of the angels with their concave faces and extremely angular wrists depends upon the convention established in the second half of the 13th century.
To the South of the altar is the most fragmentary, but, perhaps the most important painting of the three. lt represrents a most unusual version of the Harrowing of Hell. Christ, bearing the Vexillum is stretching out his hand in the usual way to pull Adam and his companions from Hell. The hands and one of the feet of Adam, and the edge of what may be Adam's halo, with which he is commonly adorned, can be made out. Trees, a bird and so on around the Christ and above Hell's mouth can be discovered. There are three features of great iconographic interest:
(1) The blood flows from the side of Christ. The intention of this motive is perfectly comprehensible in this context- by his blood are the dead saved. It could not be imagined in a representation of the Nole me Tangere. It might be possible in a Doubting Thomas but, in that case, there would not be the indications of the outside world which normally accompany a Harrowing of
(2) Christ treads on Adam's foot.
(3) The donor of the picture, a tonsured priest, appears in the lower south corner of the picture. He has an inscription reading: +RICA and beside him is wine barrel or jar. The Lombardic script of the inscription suggests a latish C13th date which is, in this case, certain, since the further leg of Adam is now covered by the frame of the central subject. That central subject is certainly C14th, so this must have been a generation old and no longer valued when it was obscured, Little though there is of it now, there can be no doubt the figure of Christ was once of very high quality.
stepneyrobarts.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/brent-eleigh-suffol...