Notes on the Mural Paintings of St. Christopher in English Churches

In the course of a search for material likely to be useful in an inquiry into the evolution of the sailing ship in Northern Europe I was attracted to the surviving mural paintings of St. Christopher, for now and then we find a masted vessel or row boat in the stream through which the saint wades. The immediate result was disappointing, for I found only twenty-three pictures with vessels of any kind; moreover the small size of the latter precludes insertion of the details of rigging or other gear, besides which a mural painting is a work of the picture-poster order, strong lines to produce an impression at a distance. The only instance of a vessel of particular value to a student of nautical archaeology I found is in the well-preserved paintings in Breage (St. Breaca's) church in Cornwall, which is seen on the left side of fig. 18. The picture is c . 1490, the date of the church, and for that time the topsail is noticeably large, while the sheets being led to the yard-arms of the main course is a point of interest in view of the controversy whether early topsails, which came into use in the second half of the fifteenth century, were usually sheeted to the tops or to the yard-arms below. As material accumulated it seemed worth while attempting a summary of our knowledge of the mural paintings of St. Christopher in English churches, in respect of their distribution, survival, and the details of the conventional representation

Archaeology · Art · Art history · Fifteenth · Mural · Painting · SAINT · Treasure · Visual arts · Yard · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Classics · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology

• Public and Private

  Open Access•Mellie Naydenova•The Antiquaries Journal•2006

  Add to list