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Virgin enthroned, with donors? Cawston, Norfolk (!Norwich) Early C.15

Photo:T.Marshall
Virgin enthroned, with donors?, Cawston [116KB]A devotional painting of the Virgin seated on a throne, with two priests kneeling in adoration in front of curtained niches. The Virgin has a gold robe and a large halo in the same colour. Almost certainly there were once other, standing, figures above the two still visible - on the left, above the kneeling priest, the hem of a robe and the feet of another person, perhaps an attendant saint, show faintly.

The Virgins right hand is raised in blessing and she has an open book on her lap. I have tried in vain to read what is written there¹ - others may have more success, so an enlarged detail is now reproduced below at the left. The Magnificat from Luke 1:46-56 is a distinct possibility. We know who the kneeling priest at the right in the main picture is - Jon Bridale, vicar of nearby Wood Dalling at the end of the 14th century. His name is actually inscribed below his figure at the lower edge of the painting (main picture, bottom right) and although it is now barely visible and illegible it can still just be made out on the wall. Bridale and the other priest at the left were presumably the donors of this large painting, which is of high quality and would have been an expensive commission (Bridales name, seen in situ, has the appearance of a signature, and it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the priest himself was the painter). The physiognomy of the donors is particularly well observed and executed - that of Bridales companion more so than his own. here,Virgin enthroned, Cawston, detail, book [56KB]

The painting is in the south transept, which is dedicated to the Virgin. It is the only one remaining in the huge church, which was built by Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk at the beginning of the 14th century, but there are many other medieval features, among them the punning inscribed Spede the plow beam, a very fine hammerbeam roof with angels and large standing figures, and a Rood screen by Flemish artists showing Doctors of the Church, Apostles and others, including a bespectacled St. Matthew and the elusive local saint Master John Shorne.

¹The book is (I think) held out for the onlooker to read - it would be upside down from the Virgins viewpoint. The first word on the third line of the lefthand page might be the contraction dns, for dominus

Website for St Agnes, Cawston

St. Anne teaching the Virgin to read, Corby Glen, Lincs St. Anne & Virgin/Miracles of Virgin, Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks Annunciation/Visitation, Ashampstead, Berkshire Annunciation, Barnby, Suffolk
Annunciation, Chalgrove, Oxon. Annunciation, Little Melton, Norfolk Annunciation, Gisleham, Suffolk Annunciation, Slapton, Northants
Annunciation, Sth. Newington, Oxfordshire Annunciation, Tarrant Crawford, Dorset Annunciation, Martley, Worcestershire Annunciation/Visitation, Faversham, Kent
Annunciation/Visitation/Nativity, Newton Green, Suffolk Annunciation/Visitation, Pinvin, Worcs Annunciation-Fring, Norfolk Visitation, Dale Abbey, Derbys
Visitation, Salisbury (S.Thomas), Wilts. The Burial of the Virgin, Pickering, N.Yorks NEW Death, Burial & Coronation of the Virgin, Sutton Bingham, Somerset Coronation of the Virgin, Black Bourton, Oxon
Background to Statue, with painted angels, Brent Eleigh, Suffolk Virgin Enthroned, with angels, Arundel, Sussex Virgin Enthroned, with donors, Cawston, Norfolk Life of the Virgin, Broughton, Oxon.
Virgin & Child, with wand and apple, South Newington, Oxford Virgin & Child, with sceptre & orb(?), Wickhamford, Worcs. Virgin suckling the Christ Child, Beckley, Oxon. Virgin suckling the Christ Child, Belchamp Walter, Essex
Death, Burial, Assumption & Coronation of the Virgin, Chalgrove, Oxfordshire Virgin intervening at the Weighing of Souls, Lathbury, Buckinghamshire The Annunciation/St Anne teaching the Virgin to read, Chapel of Our Lady of Bradwell, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire NEW Virgin & child enthroned/With SS Margaret, Catherine & Mary Magdalene, Little Wenham, Suffolk NEW

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© Anne Marshall 2001