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The saint stands centrally, against a background heavily diapered with peacocks eye decoration. He is tied to a tree, the roots and branches of which show above and below his figure. Virtually all detail of this has gone, but many arrows piercing his body show faintly, much as they do at Stoke Dry in Leicestershire. Two archers flank him, both wearing fashionable very short doublets and taking aim with their longbows. What look like large and prominent purses slung from their belts might possibly be quivers for arrows, but it is very hard to be sure about this.

Still more puzzling are the colours used here. The strong blue-green of the doublets, the purses and, rather incongruously, Edmunds halo, is very unusual, and the painting might have been retouched in post-medieval times. But the blue pigment could equally well suggest that although this is not a particularly accomplished painting, its size and the elaborate diapering, along with the use of costly pigments, made it an expensive commision, more impressive perhaps in its original state than it appears now.

20/12/2003

© Anne Marshall 2003