Fire And Fleet And Candle Light

[poliphilo]

The Ladder of Salvation mural on the West Wall of Chaldon church (near Caterham in Surrey) dates from around 1200. It's one of the best preserved Romanesque murals in England- and a comprehensive guide to the medieval afterlife.

Chaldon church is tiny and scrubby. It's often the smallest churches- the ones that were never upgraded or over-restored- that contain the most remarkable things...





Murderers are roasted in bulk



Various sins are punished in Hell. The man being pitchforked is a usurer (banker) Look closely and you can see he is vomiting money.



The Brig o' Dread- dishonest workmen cross a saw-toothed bridge



Stairway to Heaven



Whoops



The three Marys under angelic escort



The Harrowing of Hell. Christ tramples the Devil and rescues the souls of the just.



St Michael is weighing souls, the Devil tries to tip the balance



The ladder reaches Heaven

Comments

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

This is fantastic! Thanks for the tour. :-)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've been wanting to visit Chaldon for ages.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Just stunning!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Tremendous, isn't it!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Seriously, who'd dare give short measure on a penny bun after seeing every Sunday just how badly God would overreact?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I wonder if people took it seriously or whether they thought, "Well, that's just the priest talking"...

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

That is one of the best Romanesque murals I've seen anywhere both in content and preservation. And we have a lot of Romanesque in Spain in pretty good shape.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It was recovered from under whitewash in the late 19th century by a clergyman who knew what he was seeing.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Yes, a lot has been uncovered from under whitewashed walls in Spain. So often very thick layers were used during the time of the black death.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Over here the whitewashing was- I think- mainly about iconoclasm. It was done both to protect art from the protestant reformers and- of course- by the reformers themselves.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

What an amazing treasure!

Thank you!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Such an unlikely venue too- a tiny church in woodland with Croydon just up the road.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

A little music to listen to while you're contemplating these images:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1FBs9mkZPw

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I love the Lyke wake dirge!

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

I've never understood how these themes are effective, regardless of how fantastic the artwork depicting them is. I always come away from it thinking: OK, so the path to Heaven is hard, few succeed at it, Hell is your more likely destination and LORD is it horrible!

That's a pyramid scheme I can get behind - sign me up! (not)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Who knows whether people were actually frightened by these images? I imagine some were and others weren't.

[sovay]

The Brig o' Dread- dishonest workmen cross a saw-toothed bridge

Thank you for the photographs. This is wonderful.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Wow.

Nine