The Ornamented Being

Ornamented: -verb: Adorn; beautify. Be·ing: -noun: Fulfillment of possibilities; essential completeness.

Posted 1 year ago
Any British History people want to take a crack at this one? Sunday I went to the The Cathedral and Abbey Church of Saint Alban with my dad. I found this fresco in the corner of the room containing the Holy Shrine of St. Alban and went to find one of the tour guides to explain this to me. (I found him talking with my DAD in front of Thomas de la Mare’s brass in the North Ambulatory talking about World War 2 of all things!!!!)

After dragging him away he explained that this is the only medieval fresco to survive the destruction of the Protestant Reformation. It was boxed in some time before so it survived the eradication every other church artwork faced. It was re-discovered in the Victorian era when restoration was going on in the church. “The entire wall had remnants from the fresco left which proved that the inside of churches were bright and decorative.” (I literally typed up everything he said onto my iphone so I could look it up later)

The date on this piece was something around 1390. If that’s true then I wonder what’s going on with the Red roses decorating the bottom of the wall?

At first I thought they were Tudor Roses but if this is from 1390 then Richard II is the current King and a member of the House of Plantagenet (but if you remember your history then the House of York is a branch to the Royal House and their badge is the White Rose!)

Henry IV became king after Richard and was a member of the House of Lancaster whose badge during the War of the Roses was the Red Rose. Hence the red rose? Anyone want to help me figure that out?
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12. vespers-nine said: Rose iconography representing Christ and the Virgin Mary was very popular throughout most of the middle ages, so I’m willing to bet that was the inspiration behind the roses painted on that wall.
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21. celulind said: they may not have anything to do with a family emblem at all. Red roses were sometimes used as a symbol for the blood of Christ, or of the virgin. Also, these roses are six petals, not five, so I don’t think it has anything to do with the tudors.
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26. anothernerdfighterinthetardis said: Do you know who commissioned the church to be built? I can only speak about Italian churches, but the family who sponsored the church usually had their emblem emblazoned all over. Perhaps someone from the House of Lancaster paid for some/all of it?
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28. alierakieron said: The tudor rose has five petals: these look like six? Given the pattern I’m guessing they were a repeating pattern that decorated the bottom portion of the entire wall.
29. verdantdeer reblogged this from ornamentedbeing and added:
  
  I asked this same question to my local Medieval society club, since that style of rose was popping up on all kinds of...
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