Christian Imagery in the Medieval Parish Church

Around the year 600AD Pope Gregory, writing to a contemporary, said this: 

‘A picture is displayed in churches in order that those who do not know the letters may at least read by seeing on the walls what they are unable to read in books.’

What he did not add was that the stories on which the pictures are based need to be known already, if the pictures are to make sense!

These two sessions will provide a chance to explore a wide range of images and the sources that inspired them. In particular, using pictures in glass, wood, alabaster and stone, we shall look at the lives of Christ and his mother, the Virgin Mary, as so often depicted in medieval parish churches.

In the second session we will follow this by exploring the Saints and the many different ways of identifying them, and finally look at the great teaching images such as the Seven Sacraments, the Seven Deadly Sins. To finish we’ll explore many of the sources which are brought together to make up images of the Last Judgement.

With Sophie Weston. Following a career in music, Sophie taught on The Medieval Churches Certificate Course at Leeds University and more recently has led a series of study days on ecclesiastical topics and taken groups to churches in Rome, Santiago and Romania.