Hangings (of coloured wool for warmth in winter) would have been suspended on rings, as they appear in Giotto's fresco of the Confirmation of the Rule in S. Many of the rooms have geometric patterns on the walls painted in reds, greens and white, while others are decorated with fictive cloth hangings extending round It has a wide range of ceiling and mural decoration which gives a clear idea of the colouristic brilliance and love of pattern which must have been characteristic of many medieval interiors (Plate 33). Although restored at various times, Palazzo Davanzati in Florence provides a particularly well-preserved example of a late medieval palace on a large scale. This new class established residences within the safety of city walls,Īnd these could be decorated and furnished with some hope of permanence. In Italy, the political stability brought about by the rise of civic governments and theīined with swift economic expansion, gave rise to a new, affluent and comparatively stable aristocracy.
Painted mural decoration was more common in Mediterranean interiors in the Middle Ages, and from the Renaissance onwards it was not unknown for virtually every wall surface even in the largest palaces to be completely covered with frescoes. The combination of coloured tile pavements (fine examples from Clarendon are to be found in the British Museum see also Plate 20), painted walls, stained-glass windows, carved and painted fireplaces, and painted wainscoting with shining metalwork must have created a dazzling impression. When the site was excavated in the 1930s, small lead stars and crescents with traces of gilding were found, with hooks and holes for nails to attach them to the woodwork. The Antioch Chamber at Clarendon had a wainscot painted green and decorated with gold spangles - scintillis - and the King's upper chamber had a similar wainscot spotted with gold - auro deguttori. To be 'wainscoted without delay, thoroughly whitened internally and newly painted with roses'. The Woodstock was painted green with a while in 1240 her chamber in the Tower of if Usually, pine half-panelling, four to five feet high, was painted, green being the most fashionable, At Cliff Castle in Northamptonshire, the King's great chamber was wainscoted only 'beyond our bed', and at Geddington, the dais end of the hall was treated in the same way. Not all of a room was necessarily wainscoted. The wainscoting in the King's great chamber at Windsor was in radiating coloured bands. In 1252, Henry III ordered 'for our use, two hundred Norway boards of fir to wainscott therewith the chamber of our beloved son, Edward, in our castle at Winchester'.
When painted, wainscoting was normally of softwood such as spruce or pine, which was sometimes specially imported. These could frame carved folds of cloth scalloped at either end of vertically ribbed bands (iinenfold'), although this was a comparatively late medieval innovation. The decoration of the lower section of walls.Įlm, was often divided into panels (Plate 26). Time have both infantry and cavalry battles painted their halls Rendered with meticulous historical accuracy. The long gallery of this chateau was painted to represent a green forest ofĪnd plum trees with lilies and roses Mahaut, Countess of Artois,Ĭreated a memorial to her father by having the gallery of her castle at Conflans painted with scenes showing his feats of arms, King Charles V, like his brother the Due de Berry a great patron of the arts, had a 'Chambre de Charlemagne', a 'Chambre de Matabrune' and a 'Salle de Thesee' in his Chateau de St-Pol. Books again provided inspiration for the decoration of the 'Salle des Caesars' in the Duke of Normandy's Chateau de Val de Recel in the fifteenth century: here the source was a book in the Duke's own library.
Poems, and the Counts of Artois had a 'Salle de Chansons' at the Chateau de Hesdin painted with verses and illustrations from the Jeu de Robin et Marion.