Hidden medieval murals in the Cathedral of Angers were digitally restored and revealed for the first time in over 500 years, thanks to a team of UK-based art historians and conservators. The late 13th-century wall paintings were whitewashed following a mid-15th-century fire and had remained hidden behind wooden panels since then, as reported by ARTnews.
The team, which included members from the Hamilton Kerr Institute, spent more than a decade capturing images of the wall paintings depicting the life and miracles of Saint Maurille, a bishop of Angers from the fifth century. The photographs were taken in the space behind wall paneling that could not be dismantled because it forms part of the choir loft.
The digital reconstruction of the paintings was created from over 8,000 photographs of the curving walls, merged into a coherent image by Chris Tietjens from the Hamilton Kerr Institute. "The task of merging the photographs took years due to access issues and wall curvature," said Tietjens.
In 1980, a priest who had been using the small area for storage rediscovered the paintings, which had remained hidden and unrecorded for centuries, as reported by Robb Report. French experts restored the paintings, but prior to recent efforts, they had only been documented in partial black-and-white photographs.
The vibrant wall paintings, considered among the most magnificent of their kind preserved from the late 13th century in France, depict the life and miracles of Saint Maurille. Legend has it that Saint Maurille failed to raise a child from the dead and, as a result, fled to England. In England, he penitentially worked for the king as a gardener. Saint Maurille later learned that the child was, in fact, alive. He returned to the site of Angers Cathedral to bless the boy, who became Saint René.
The paintings emphasize the journeys across the English Channel to England, as the region of Anjou was the original base of the Plantagenet dynasty that ruled England for centuries until the death of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth.
The murals have close stylistic links with the court of King Henry III of England, suggesting shared knowledge among the painters regarding material use and styling. The team noted similarities between the rendering of a young king in the banquet painting and the portrait sculpture of Henry III on his tomb in London's Westminster Abbey. "These similarities indicate a shared knowledge of new materials among groups of painters," they observed, as reported by Youm7. There may have been even the same hands at work on the paintings in Angers and those in Westminster Abbey.
The paintings may have been commissioned by Isabella la Blanche, half-sister of the English king Henry III, or her son Maurice. Maurice may have been raised partially at the court of King Henry III. The team dates the paintings to around 1270.
After being whitewashed, the paintings were boxed behind woodwork by 1786, which caused some damage but protected them from attacks by iconoclasts and vandalism during the French Revolution.
The team believes the paintings were made by two groups of painters using oil colors, not fresco. These similarities, combined with the narrative of cross-Channel travel between the English and French, are believed by the team to be not coincidental.
Emily Geri, a medieval history lecturer at St Peter's College, Oxford, analyzed the historical context and potential patrons of the paintings. She described the paintings as "incredibly stunning," but noted that "trying to photograph them, spending days slowly moving along a narrow space amid dust and dead pigeons, and trying to get the light and camera angle identical in every shot was a nightmare."
The new photographs reveal the complete murals for the first time in half a millennium, as published by the Hamilton Kerr Institute Bulletin. The woodwork had protected the paintings from damage, but it also presented challenges for the team attempting to document them.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.