Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Sunday 6 August 2023

The Transfiguration at Westhall in Suffolk


Following my previous post I received a generous note from Dr Simon Cotton drawing my attention to his article in the most recent edition of The Portal, the magazine of the Ordinariate. I had not got round to reading my own copy, mea culpa, but it is an attractively produced magazine that is well worth subscribing to online.

In the article he describes and places in historical and liturgical context the only surviving medieval English painting of the Transfiguration. This is on the rood screen at the church at Westhall in north-east Suffolk and is dated to about 1490. Amongst other things it suggests how quickly parishes appear to have responded to liturgical changes made at a national level.

Wikipedia has an account of what is clearly a very interesting church, including details of the surviving screen paintings, at St Andrew's Church, Westhall

The illustrated article about the painting in The Portal can be found by going to the magazine website and scrolling down to page 19 at https://www.portalmag.co.uk/portal/portal-2023-08.pdf  


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