The walls of the church were covered with fresco paintings of the day of
judgment, legendary stories, portraits of saints, and scriptural,
allegorical, and historical subjects, in the conventional styles of the
different ages in which such were executed, the costume and details being
according to the fashion then prevailing. These paintings have in most
churches been obliterated by repeated coats of whitewash, so that few
perfect specimens now remain; traces of such are, however, occasionally
brought to light in the alteration and reparation of our ancient churches.
The subject of the judgment-day was commonly represented on the west wall
of the nave, or over the chancel arch; and in the contract for the
erection of the Lady Chapel, St. Mary's Church, Warwick, A. D. 1454, is a
covenant "to paint fine and curiously, to make on the west wall the dome
of our Lord God Jesus, and all manner of devises and imagery thereto
belonging." The west front of the wall over the chancel arch, Trinity
Chapel, Stratford-upon-Avon, was some years back found to be thus covered;
but this painting, with others in the same chapel, was afterwards again
obliterated[199-*]. A curious fresco painting of the last judgment,
discovered a few years ago on the west face of the wall over the chancel
arch, Trinity Church, Coventry, has, however, been very carefully
preserved, and the coat of whitewash which tended to conceal it probably
ever since the Reformation has been judiciously removed.
Pages:
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141