Rare Medieval Art Works Uncovered & Incomparable at St. Cadoc's, Glamorgan, Wales

The BBC website recently reported that there was something amazing occurring in Wales. According to a Welsh online article (see links below) many rare and amazing paintings dating to 15thC had been uncovered behind the whitewash on the walls of St Cadoc's Church in Llancarfan, Glamorgan.

The BBC reports that;

A painting of St George and the Dragon which is said to be one of the best examples of its kind in the UK and a mural depicting Death and the Gallant - the only one of its kind found in Wales - are just some of the artworks revealed during the restoration of the church.

Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the conservation team began work in 2008 after exploratory finds confirmed that the 21 layers of whitewash had indeed been keeping a medieval secret for 460 years.

Ian Fell, who worked on the restoration team said;

“The walls are mind-blowing. They’ve still got quite a way to go but I think it’s beyond compare in Wales.”

Sam Smith, the restoration commitee's chairman said;

“In 2008 when they found that, they said we had probably the best St George and the Dragon that had been found in a church in Britain in a very long time,”

Since finding St George & The Dragon in 2008, the website, www.walesonline.co.uk announced that;

The most recent work has uncovered more of the medieval castle, from where the ginger- bearded king and his distraught queen are watching from the battlements. There’s even someone looking out of a window, that’s very unusual, no-one expected that at all,” Mr Smith said. “When you think these were painted around 1480 and they’re still visible quite clearly it really is quite something.

Early work had also revealed a skeletal head and the face of a man in a woolly Monmouth cap, but the committee had not realised at first they were connected.

Emerging new details show, the pair are part of a depiction of Death and the Gallant, with the skeleton complete with a worm crawling through his rib cage, set to lead the man to purgatory.

“Death and the Gallant is very important because it’s very unusual, very seldom seen, in fact no Death and the Gallant has ever been seen in a church in Wales before,” said Mr Smith.

He said the reason why the church may have had such elaborate artwork painted on its walls was because of its importance in the 15th century.

Within the Vale of Glamorgan and after the Danish invasion, Llancarfan remained

'the most powerful ecclesiastical community in Glamorgan'.

Although it did not survive the Norman invasion, the parish of Llancarfan was a stong one, with a monestary having been founded there since 650AD by St Cadoc

The paintings, designed to educate and enlighten the minds of those parishioners who attended the church in the Middle Ages, had been covered up with whitewash during the Reformation of the Church by Henry VIII, which hid the colourful and detailed depictions of most churches in the country with puritanical white plain walls. It is largely thanks to this cover however, that most of the paintings survived, having been painted straight onto the plaster of the original walls and preserved through the thick layers of reformation.

St Cadoc's website, www.stcadocs.org.uk alludes to the date of the paintings;

The earliest painting of St George survives in Hardham, Sussex - created about 1100. Ours is much later. Clues to the date lie in the Princesses clothes, a design found in the late 1400's. As is George's visible armour. Henry VIII, supported by Protestant scorn, began the 'blotting out' of church images from around 1536. So maybe our paintings were visible for less and a hundred years.

The 800 year old church also houses some other magnificent Medieval treasures. A ploychromed canopy, dated to the 15thC and revealing original colours has been declared as one of the highest quality and 'most important for their date' in Europe.

For further information please go to the following links:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hugh-harrison.co.uk/wood_conservation/surveys_consultancy/llancarfan_church1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hugh-harrison.co.uk/surveys_and_consultancy.html&usg=__jupArTmUF8b1IP_fuP5G7vquv4U=&h=570&w=760&sz=192&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=5cyKQN5qUhTi8M:&tbnh=132&tbnw=179&ei=J08wTZWfKdC2hAenhY2cCw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dst%2Bcadoc%2527s%2Bchurch%2Bllancarfan%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1B3GGGL_enGB315GB315%26biw%3D1152%26bih%3D562%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=94&oei=J08wTZWfKdC2hAenhY2cCw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0&tx=80&ty=80

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.churches-uk-ireland.org/images/glam/llancarfan.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.churches-uk-ireland.org/glam.html&usg=__D1JNwaAzhz653Dw3KSHe4AKaH6I=&h=281&w=432&sz=38&hl=en&start=15&zoom=1&tbnid=8TMkcHZEoGkCbM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=171&ei=XFAwTcXVEdfPjAezw4nDCg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dst%2Bcadoc%27s%2Bchurch%2Bllancarfan%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1B3GGGL_enGB315GB315%26biw%3D1152%26bih%3D562%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C211&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=481&vpy=290&dur=646&hovh=181&hovw=278&tx=195&ty=142&oei=J08wTZWfKdC2hAenhY2cCw&esq=11&page=2&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:15&biw=1152&bih=562

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/waleshistory/2010/11/rare_medieval_paintings_st_cadocs_church_cowbridge.html

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/arts-in-wales/2010/11/29/mind-blowing-medieval-art-is-unveiled-in-church-91466-27733326/

http://www.stcadocs.org.uk/en/treasures.html