Christ the Worker in Art

Extract

In the four centuries preceding the Reformation, the decoration of the walls of churches was an important form of the art of painting. In many English parish churches the whole of the interior may have been covered with pictures. The subject matter generally included scenes from the Gospels and Lives of the Saints, but varied considerably according to the local:ty and period. Although a higher degree of artistic merit was attained in many of the illuminated manuscripts and panel paintings produced by the great monastic centres and by the Court school at Westminster, the wall paintings were often more representative of contemporary ideas.

At the present time, only a comparatively small proportion of mediaeval wall-paintings remain in a good state of preservation. It is recorded that after the Reformation, Puritan iconoclasts destroyed literally thousands. Fortunately, however, some were only covered with whitewash, and others had been obscured by additional stonework, and these have been brought to light again. Many accurate copies of these have been made by Professor Tristram, of which eight hundred are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Towards the end of the fourteenth century, the social changes following upon the Plague were reflected in the wall-paintings. It would appear that in, this period of social unrest, something very like our present idea of Christ the Worker came into being. Wall paintings began to appear having for their subject Christ as a poor man, displaying his wounds, and surrounded with workmen’s tools. The usual cruciform halo is absent, and in some cases the tools take its place. About fourteen or fifteen examples of these paintings are to be found in various parts of the country, in Buckinghamshire, Suffolk, Berkshire, Sussex, Gloucestershire, Cornwall, and Pembroke. Considering the large number of paintings which were destroyed, the fact that so many survive is a good indication of its popularity at the time.