Page:VCH Norfolk 2.djvu/578

A HISTORY OF NORFOLK quadripartite Norman vaulting, and on its western transverse arch, paintings of this period (PI. ii.). The arrises of the vaulting, as in the twelfth century work, previously described, are covered by a broad band of greenish grey, much like Purbeck marble in colour, edged by a narrow red line. At the point of intersection at the crown of the vault these bands are covered by a circular space greyish drab in colour, equally edged with a red line. On this ground is painted a seated figure, probably of our Lord, vested in blue, and a branching vine in white springs from one side of the circle, and curves in a graceful scroll behind the figure. Concentric with this circular space, at a distance of two feet from it, is a band of dark grey between two and three inches wide. The interval between this band and the circular space is filled with interlacing scrolls of a pale green delicately outlined with black on a ground of broken white, with flowers of an orange red on stems springing from the scrolls. Outside this band were painted, on a broken white ground like that of the scroll work just described, a group of three standing figures in each division of the vaulting. Of these groups only that to the east is fairly well preserved. The name of each figure was painted above it upon the grey band mentioned, but can now be read only here and there. Still, with the aid of the inscriptions and in other ways, the identity of the per- sonages represented could be made out when the paintings were first exposed. The late Dean Goulburn, in his description of the chapel, says : ' In the southern section (of the vaulting) the central figure is that of a bishop, who has St. Edmund on his right hand and St. Lawrence on his left. St. Edmund is presenting a sword to the bishop, or the bishop to St. Edmund ; the painting is so defaced that it is impossible to say which. In the western section are represented the Blessed Virgin and the Divine Child, having St. Catherine on the left hand and St. Margaret on the right. The Child seems to be looking up earnestly into the Mother's face, and grasping at an apple which she holds in her hand. St. Catherine carries her wheel ; St. Margaret, under whose feet are seen the twining folds of the dragon, holds a crosier in her left hand and a palm-branch in her right ... In the northern section are three bishops (or abbots) with pastoral staves . . . These bishops have all low-peaked early mitres . . . the names over their heads (one all but effaced) show them to be St. Martin, St. Nicholas, and St. Richard of Chichester.'^ The identifications of the figures may be correct, but only those in the eastern section are sufficiently preserved to enable any judgment to be formed respecting the colour and style of these compositions. In the section named, St. Peter stands with St. Andrew on his right and St. Paul on his left hand. He is vested in amice and albe, a green dalmatic, and a pale blue chasuble, with pall, stole (?), and fanon. On his head is the papal crown, which in the fourteenth century only showed one circle, and in his hand he bears the keys. St. Paul, robed in green with an undergarment of red, turns sideways towards St. Peter, holding out towards him the sword of his martyrdom. St. Andrew habited in blue stands with his cross before him. The ground on which all these figures are painted is a broken white, sufficiently dark to allow of the nimbus of each saint showing white upon it. This ground is covered with delicate branching scroll work of vine leaves in 1 Horf. Arch. (1884), ix. 275, tt. seq. 534