|
 Longthorpe Tower Murals - Longthorpe, Cambridgeshire Posted by:  SMacB
N 52° 34.252 W 000° 17.203
30U E 683871 N 5827992
Longthorpe Tower’s outstanding importance lies in its 14th-century wall-paintings, which are a rarity both for their mixture of secular, religious and didactic themes, and for their domestic setting. The tower has few parallels in south England.
Waymark Code: WMVKYA
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/01/2017
Views: 1
"The three-storey tower at Longthorpe was added between about 1290 and 1300 to an earlier house. It retains much of its 14th-century detail, including, in the first-floor room, Longthorpe’s chief glory: spectacular wall-paintings that cover almost all available surfaces. Dating from about 1330, they depict religious, secular and mythical subjects, along with heraldry and images of birds and animals.
Wall-Paintings: North Wall
The central scene on the north wall, above the window, is a Nativity. Above and around it, separated off by a dark red band bearing inscriptions, are depicted the ‘Seven Ages of Man’, from infanthood to decrepitude. Much detail is missing, but the figures and parts of their accompanying Latin labels remain legible.
Below, to the left of the window recess, two standing figures representing Apostles form part of a series running from the west window recess to the north side of the entrance door. The odd one out is the female figure to the right of the window: the scroll she is holding suggests that she represents the Church as an institution.
Below the Apostles are four large birds.
East Wall
The east wall has two Apostles in the doorway recess, and in a niche, a bearded older man teaching three young ones. Above the doorway and on the south side of the recess are shown, respectively, the ‘Three Living Kings’ (two of whom survive) confronting the ‘Three Dead Kings’, a variation of a well-known medieval reminder of mortality.
The major scene here, however, shows a standing figure, a large wheel, and a number of creatures – a combination which historians have called the ‘Wheel of the Five Senses’. Around the rim, clockwise from lower left, are depicted a monkey eating (representing taste), a hawk (smell), a spider’s web (touch), a poorly drawn mammal, and the head of a cockerel.
The crowned figure behind the wheel holds a spoke with one hand and points to the rim with the other, perhaps implying control and understanding.
The models for this scene have been much discussed. It is essentially a conflation of the graphic concept of the ‘wheel of fortune’ or ‘wheel of life’and the literary pairing of animals and senses which ultimately derived from Aristotle and Pliny but was formalised in Thomas de Cantimpré’s mid-13th-century Liber de Naturis Rerum. If Cantimpré was the model, the mammal represents a boar (hearing) and the hawk a vulture.
The overall message probably contrasts the inferiority of man’s senses with his unique possession of reason, and the resulting ability to control impulses triggered by sensory experiences. More elaborate interpretations derived from Aristotelian philosophy, however, abound.
Whatever its precise meaning, the composition is extremely rare.
South Wall
The lower part of the south wall is painted to mimic a cloth hanging, on which the Thorpe arms alternate with another, now unreadable.
Above sit two enthroned figures flanked by shields. The one to the left bears the royal arms of England as used until 1340 and may represent Edward II (r.1307–27) or more probably Edward III (r.1327–77). The other shield identifies the right-hand figure as Edward II’s half-brother Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent, executed in 1330.
The reason for their presence here has been much discussed, but it is most likely that it pays homage to the king as Robert Thorpe’s employer and to the earl, perhaps, as a landlord, drawing attention to Robert’s ‘strong links to the ruling elite’.
To the lower right, over the doorways, an archer (the figure is missing) rashly aims at the back end of a bonnacon, a mythological beast armed with projectile flaming excrement.
West Wall
Much of the west wall is taken up by a broad arched recess, above and around which were depicted the Labours of the Months. Of these, only January (a man sitting by a fire), March (digging) and December (pig killing for Christmas) remain legible. A bittern and a bestiary-derived crane decorate the wall to the lower right.
The main wall surface has two scenes, one above the other. In the upper one, a man stands praying (left); behind him, birds and rabbits denote a wilderness setting. Opposite him a seated figure is making a basket, with a further figure standing behind him. God (head and shoulders) appears in cloud above.
The inscription proves that the left-hand figure represents St Anthony. He is receiving a message from God in the form of an angel, alternatively working (making a basket) and praying (the standing figure), who says (see last fragments of the inscription): [SIC FAC ET S]ALVUS ER[IS] (‘Do thus and you will be saved’) – a story from the early Christian Sayings of the Elders.
Below, framed by a border (with realistic lapwing and bestiary-derived parrot), are two men, one seated and probably teaching, and the other, his pupil, standing.
Vault
Each quarter of the vault once displayed one of the symbols of the Evangelists (the authors of the four Gospels) in quatrefoils, and figures of two musicians. The musicians illustrate the words of Psalm 150 (‘Praise him with the sound of the trumpet’) and all but one of the seven instruments it names can be identified.
The intent was partly to represent heaven, held to be filled with music, and partly to show the relationship between earthly doings and the enjoyment of heaven, picking up on the saying of St Anthony spelt out on the west wall.
The images and figures on the four quarters of the vault are:
-
in the west quarter, to the right, an angel playing a bagpipe; neither the figure to the left – presumably an angel playing a stringed instrument or cymbalum (row of bells) – nor the Evangelist’s symbol (which must have been the lion of St Mark or the angel of St Matthew) survives
-
in the north quarter, the eagle of St John, labelled JOHANNES, flanked by King David playing a harp on the left (see image at top of page) and a psaltery player on the right
-
in the east quarter, an angel playing a 16-pipe portative organ (right), opposite a figure – of which only the lower legs survive – which could have been a string or cymbalum player; the Evangelist’s symbol is lost
-
in the south quarter, the ox of St Luke and angels playing the rebec, a precursor of the viol and violin, and (just visible to the right) the upper rim of a drum."
SOURCE - (Visit Link)
City: Longthorpe
Location Name: Longthorpe Tower
Date: ca.1320
Media: Paint on plaster
Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]
Artist: Not listed
|
Visit Instructions:
Please give the date and description of your visit. One original photo of the mural must also be submitted. GPSr photo NOT required.
Recent Visits/Logs:
| There are no logs for this waymark yet. |
|
|
|
|