The legend of St.
Christopher, represented by a colossal figure with a beam-like
walking-staff, carrying the infant Christ on his shoulders through the
water, was generally painted on the north wall of the nave or body of the
church. A fresco painting of this subject, half obliterated, is still
apparent on the north wall of the nave of Burford Church, Oxfordshire; and
other instances might be adduced. The murder of Archbishop Becket was also
a very favourite subject: an early pictorial representation of the
thirteenth century, of this event, is still visible on one of the walls of
Preston Church, Sussex; it formed, likewise, one of the subjects
represented on the walls of Trinity Chapel, Stratford-upon-Avon; and a
painting of the same subject on panel, executed in the middle of the
fifteenth century, was formerly suspended over or near the tomb of Henry
the Fourth in Canterbury Cathedral[200-*]. Several vestiges of ancient
fresco wall-paintings, more or less obliterated, are still preserved in
Winchester Cathedral. The walls of our churches were even in the
Anglo-Saxon era embellished with paintings; and such are described as
decorating the walls of the church of Hexham in the seventh century. By
the synod of Calcuith, held A. D. 816, a representation of the saint to
whom a church was dedicated was required to be painted either on the wall
of the church or on a tablet suspended in the church.
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