Friday indulgence - Medieval Polychromy

It's Friday we can indulge ourselves with a visual treat.  The late fifteenth century nave roof at Salle in Norfolk has an extraordinary amount of its original medieval polychromy.  Much of the work is a powdering of standard motifs, the IHS, crowned MR's (Maria Regina) for Our Lady - but there are lots of gorgeous tendrils of foliage between.   Then a fabulous series of bosses, angels and grotesque heads.  Of course the colours have softened down over the years, but the effect of the colouring is still striking.  

Salle, Norfolk

Salle, Norfolk

Salle, Norfolk

Salle, Norfolk

Salle, Norfolk





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Comments

Davis said…
Lovely to see how freely they worked.
3 July 2015 at 16:56
Allan Barton said…
Do you think the monograms are stencilled or drawn out freehand?
3 July 2015 at 17:30
Gatepost productions said…
Just love the whole thing. I think they must be drawn out freehand: there seem to be differences between them
3 July 2015 at 20:53
Allan Barton said…
That's my thoughts too John, sometimes they are clearly stencilled, but not in this case.
3 July 2015 at 21:37
Jean said…
I think its a combination of the two, judging by my own experience, the letters appear stencilled, and these would be applied first to keep the scale - but the " scroll work" can be done by hand once you have the "rhythm going" on a design like this. (love your blog.)
25 July 2015 at 11:10
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