The Nativity story may originally have continued to the right, perhaps with the Annunciation to the Shepherds, but the next incident visible, in much better condition, is the Adoration of the Magi (detail, left), in the lower tier at the left, below the Annunciation. The Virgin sits at the right, crowned, and holding the infant Christ, who has the tripartite halo, on her lap. In her right hand she hold a small circular object - a pearl? - but this is not mentioned in Tristram’s description, and although it may have a purely symbolic function, it could also be a distortion introduced by restoration, since the paintings have certainly been restored at some time.

One of the Magi, a king, and no doubt the eldest of the three, kneels to receive Christ’s blessing and present his gift, a disc-shaped object, probably made of gold. Behind him stands a much younger man, with what may be a crown on his head, holding a vial for the frankincense or myrrh and pointing inwards, probably for the benefit of the third Magus, who is no longer visible but is described by Tristram as bearded, crowned and raising his hands in wonder. The Adoration is separated from the next scene to the right, the Crucifixion and Resurrection, (detail, right) only by a narrow vertical line.

The Crucifixion shows the Virgin, her head propped on her hand in sorrow, and St. John with a book on the other side of the Cross. There are some puzzling details - two curving bulges on either side of the Cross halfway down it are hard to account for, unless there were once sorrowing figures, such as Mary Magdalene, here. Half of Christ’s face is effectively obscured, perhaps by a deliberately-painted attempt to suggest a mask of blood, or perhaps for some other reason. Once again, it is hard to be sure what is and is not the product of restoration².
Most unusually, the Resurrection is shown in the same in the same ‘compartment’ as the Crucifixion, and even more unusually, Christ stands upright in front of the rectangular tomb, arms raised. There is no sign of the Vexillum or of another figure. This may be an attempt on the part of the painter to avoid the vexing problem of showing a figure climbing in a dignified way out of a box-like structure. The diffficulties presented by perspective and by the convincing articulation of the limbs were considerable, and in any medieval painting of the subject it is usually clear that the painter is trying desperately not to present Christ as a clumsy, distorted figure, scrambling gracelessly out of the tomb.

To the right of the Crucifixion/Resurrection is part of the Ascension, (detail, left) with two disciples, one looking up, others implied, and a front-facing figure in draperies who is probably the Virgin, but this has been overpainted in the 15th century with a scene on a much larger scale showing St. Roch, a fairly recent saint who died in about 1380. Roch, a hermit, spent much of his life on pilgrimages, contracting plague, of which he was miraculously cured, in Piacenza and thus becoming a patron of pilgrims and plague victims alike. He is occasionally painted on English screens, but I have not seen another wall painting of him in England.

Both his areas of patronage are indicated here. Roch himself is the large figure at the left, his pilgrim’s hat carried on the end of his staff. With his left hand he holds open his cloak to reveal the plague-sore on his leg. A bending Angel, much smaller, is at the right, pointing out the sore, with a tree (apparently belonging to this painting and not the 13th century series) above. The St. Roch painting must be a fairly recent discovery, since the main books on the subject do not mention it, but it is very useful evidence of the preoccupations colouring medieval life and of the fact that any saint might crop up anywhere.

Links to the Contents pages for Lives of the Virgin and the Saints are at the top and bottom of the page. Other links relevant to these paintings, such as those to Passion and Infancy Cycles, can be found from the Main Contents Page.

¹Tristram 11, p.591
²Neither Tristram nor Caiger-Smith mention these details. There is an article and reproduction in a rather obscure journal of 1856, which I will try to track down.

26/8/2001

© Anne Marshall 2001 +++