Magyar Műemlékvédelem (Országos Műemléki Felügyelőség Kiadványai 14. Budapest, 2007)

ÉPÜLETEK HOMLOKZATI FELÜLETKÉPZÉSÉNEK ÉS SZÍNESSÉGÉNEK TÖRTÉNETISÉGE. KONFERENCIA (BUDAPEST, 2005. NOVEMBER 17-18.) - IAN C. BRISTOW: Some Recent Research in the UK

SOME RECENT RESEARCH IN THE UK IAN C. BRISTOW It is a great delight to be here today, taking part in this conference. In my talk I will try to give you a picture of some of the work being done in the UK on historic exterior colour; and hope you will find items which are of relevance and interest to projects here in Hungary and elsewhere in Europe. (Slide I) (Slide 2) The use of polychromy on exterior elements during the later medieval period in Britain is well established. The surviving accounts of the monarch's office of Works contain a fair number of references to the painting and gilding of out-door coats of arms, carved heraldic animals, weather-vanes, and window-shutters; while a particularly elaborate entry details work done in 1533 when the Palace of Westminster was refreshed for the coronation of Anne Boleyn, the unfortunate second wife of King Henry VIII. The largest building within the palace complex, Westminster Hall, had originally been built in 1087-1100, and was remodelled in 1394-1401 (when the celebrated hammer-beam roof was constructed); and it is clear that by 1500 some elements of the north porch were already painted.

1 Superseding this, in 1533 the exterior sculpture was painted and gilded; while among a mass of itemised detail the guatrefoils in the spandrels above the door are noteworthy for their 'divers angels and beasts bearing up the arms of Saint Edward & the arms of England.

.. & roses gilt with fine gold, fine bice & other fine colours in oil'. The vault inside was 'painted with white, green, bice, vermilion & other colours garnished with knots & antigue sguares & targets of the king's badges gilt with fine gold in oil, the pillars jasper' while the walls below were similarly decorated.

5 Happily, Westminster Hall and its roof survived the fire of 1834; but the stonework of the north porch has been renewed in the course of successive restorations, and as far as I can see not a trace of colour survives today. (Slide 3) At Exeter cathedral, on the other hand, the converse is true. Although there is no substantive documentation for painting the exterior, traces of colour were noted on the sculpture of the west front in 1906 and 1932. Despite this, the stonework was washed with water in 1935, 1956, and 1972; and in 1979 treated by the limepoultice method, so that it is remarkable that any physical evidence for the colour survives today. Fortunately, however, (Slide 4) during the last of these programmes 560 paint samples were taken from crevices, and folds in the drapery; and through their examination by optical microscopy, Eddie Sinclair has more recently been able to go some way to reconstructing (Slide 5) the original scheme of colouring on the screen, which was executed in oil. In this connection, it is notable that the sculpture is of varying date, the lower range of figures probably dating from c. 1342-1347 and 1375, and the upper from 1460-1480; but no differences were noted in the stratigraphy or technigue, perhaps suggesting the polychromy is all of the latter date.

3 While Eddie was doing this work about 1990, one of the standard English references on Medieval painting technique was still that published by Daniel Thompson in 1936;

4 but scholarship is moving on with increasing rapidity, and besides other contributions we now have Helen Howard's Pigments of English Medieval Wallpainting (2003). Also, much important work has been done on interior objects of the period, both in terms of wallpaintings on plaster, and, more relevantly for exterior examples such as Westminster and Exeter, oil on timber. (Slide 6) The first example which I must mention is the research carried out by the Hamilton Kerr Institute of Cambridge University in connection with their recent conservation of the 14th-century retable at St. Mary's Church, Thornham Parva, Suffolk, in which the removal of later overpaint was preceded by painstaking state-of-the-art technical examination by a team of specialists. (Slide 7) Thus, by way of example, by identification of the fossil coccoliths present, the chalk used in the ground was identified as coming from a particular geological bed, and a possible source in East Anglia suggested; (Slide 8) determination of the lead isotopes present in the white lead has indicated use of ore from Derbyshire; (Slide 9) and dendrochonology has provided a felling date of between 1317 and c. 1340 for the timbers forming the substrate, with an origin in the eastern Baltic. The whole project was published in 2003.

5 Most recently, the same institute has undertaken a similar exercise on the Westminster Abbey retable of comparable date, which has just been returned to the Abbey (in time for celebrations marking the 1000

;h anniversary of