Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/152

 102 PROCEEDINGS AT MEETINGS OF The figures are of small proportion, but the details are well expressed ; and althougli some inaccuracies of drawing are apparent, and the pro- prieties of perspective and the proportion of various parts of the design are not observed, the draM-ing is more spirited than is usually found in mural decorations of the period, which appears to be about the middle of the fifteenth century. The Last Judgment is the least perfect of these curious paintings ; but it claims attention on account of the singular manner in which the subject is treated. Enthroned on the rainbow appears the Saviour-Judge,3 his bleeding hands upraised, his wounded side bared to view, and the feet, which rest upon the globe of earth, show likewise the bloody tokens of his passion. Above his head appear the sun and the crescent of the moon ; on each side, as if emerging from the skies, is seen the winged head of an incorporeal cherub, from whose mouth proceeds a trump of monstrous dimensions, the two mighty instruments of sound converging so as nearly to meet below the feet of the Saviour. To each trump is attached a square banner, one being charged with the emblems of the Passion, the cross, the spear, the reed and sponge, &c., whilst the other bears in the like strange heraldic semblance, which is not unfrequently found in the fifteenth century, the five wounds in saltire. These enormous trumpets, with their wide opening mouths, are, it will be observed, more than double the length of the figure of our Lord, and appear as if upborne in the heavens, with no supporting hand. This mode of pourtraying the angelic beings, the cherubs of the painters of a later time, without body or arms, is not often to be found in designs of the date to which these mural paintings are assigned. At the sides, beyond the trumpets, appear two kneeling figures, their heads with nimbs : the figure on the Saviours right being apparently a female, having a coverchief on her head, that at his left a young man. These are probably intended to represent the Blessed Virgin and St. John, the Evangelist. Immediately below the Saviour are depicted St. Peter on the right, and the Demon Accuser and tempter of man, represented as if contending for the possession of a number of .souls, forming a group in the centre of the subject. The demon stretches forth over them a bill or scroll on which writing appears, the record of their sins. St. Peter, on the opposite side, seems to reject the malignant indictment by the arch-enemy ; he holds a single key of very large pro- portions. One key only being here seen in the Apostle's hand ma3% perhaps, be intended to symbolise, that his function of binding or of loosing upon earth has been concluded ; he retains the celestial key alone. Below this are seen a great company of the departed spirits ; on the right is a dais or canopied throne surmounted by a cross ; under the canopy arc seen heads bearing the tiara and crown of sovereignty ; their eyes are turned upwards, as it were in no certain assurance of their future doom, whilst on the left of the picture the demons appear selecting their ]>rey from the crowd, and one most conspicuous is seen transporting a victim of wrath upon a wheel-bari'ow towards the mouth of the infernal pit, represented on the extreme left. Below these again are other demons dragging away the condemned spirits into perdition. — In the next subject, of which a tracing was exhibited, the Patron Saint of England is seen, piercing the Dragon. At no great distance is the Princess of Libya, •'' The dimensions of this figure are about six inches in height.