Page:VCH Norfolk 2.djvu/574

 A HISTORY OF NORFOLK ground splashed with white and bright red, evidently an imitation of some marble, perhaps serpentine. The capitals of the double columns supporting the transverse arches between the bays of the vaulting in the aisles had been treated in much the same way as those of the arcade, but the division beneath the vertical faces of each capital had been coloured to imitate yellow marble. The same system of decoration as that which adorned the aisles was employed in the triforium of the quire, with the additional enrichment afforded by coloured diapers upon the shafts supporting the arches, the mouldings of which latter were covered with different simple patterns. The work in the triforium is not so easily to be made out as that in the aisles, but the scheme of the Norman colouring is still distinguishable, and it is possible to realize in imagination its effect when perfect. The fact of the imitation of various marbles to be seen in the work is worthy of note, as it shows the persistence of the idea of the use of such materials, brought down from the Roman period. Comparatively few traces of the painter's art of the thirteenth century are to be found in the county, and these belong to the latter half of the century. There is a certain quantity of ornamental detail, but no great figure compositions, and only one small example of such compositions can be cited. This occurred in the back of a large recess in the west wall of the nave of Starston Church in Southern Norfolk. It was discovered in 1872 when that wall was taken down to build a north aisle, and was consequently destroyed. The recess was 2 feet from the floor, about 4 feet wide, and the same in height to the apex of the arch. Judging from a copy made at the time it was uncovered the subject of the painting filling this recess appears to have been an entombment. It was painted upon the back wall on a green ground, which possibly had originally been blue, but which had suffered a chemical change. A tomb, on which lies a pink pall, is shown in the foreground, the space at its head being occupied by an altar covered by white drapery. The composition contains many figures, the prevailing colours being pink of various shades, purple and yellow ; black and white are also freely used. It should be noted that the hair of the characters represented, with only two or three exceptions, is bright yellow, the flesh tones being only a broken white with a slight colouring in the cheeks.^ When describing the Norman colouring in the choir aisles of Norwich Cathedral mention was made of the quatrefoils painted at the intersections of the vaultings. These are apparently thirteenth-century work, as may be the elaborate masonry pattern on the soffit of the arch of the apse of St. Luke's chapel in the same church. The voussoirs of this arch are painted alternately grey and red with a leaf pattern in white running through them. The soffit of the arch of entrance to the same chapel bears also traces of a pattern of lozenges, white with two bordering bands, one vandyked red and white, the other grey. Each lozenge held some device, the only one remain- ing showing a red lion rampant. Of far more interest than these fragments of decorative work were those discovered in 1889 in the deanery. When the floors of two rooms over the kitchen were under repair beams afoot deep and ten inches wide were exposed. These were covered on the sides with paintings, as doubtless were their ' See Norfolk Archaeology, vii, 300. 532