WALL PAINTINGS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 April 1939, Page 8

WALL PAINTINGS

AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY. Nothing particular distinguished the little church of Martignac, a village of a hundred inhabitants, in the commune of Puy-l’Eveque, Lot, France. Within its ancient walls of the Romanesque period it counted an old wooden statue of St Peter, its white-washed walls, to give more light, .making the church look rather bare. But Canon Cassagnade of Puy-l’Eveque visited the little church. He had had much experience of other churches in different parts of France and was persuaded 'that the church of Martignac had more to show than a simple wooden statue. Canon Cassagnade wondered if the white-wash might not hide something, and he caused a part of it to be reimoved, to discover beneath it a very fine fresco of the fifteenth century. What has been uncovered is apparently a representation of the capital sins, symbolised by strange figures bound together by a long chain. Envy rides astride a dog, Anger is mounted on a horse, and Gluttony rides a pig. It is believed that a pendant series will be found on the other side of the church showing the Virtues. At the entrance to the church, a group of the Entombment of Christ has been found, and an accompanying Crowning of the Virgin, with an Entry of the Elected into Heaven, and it is believed that a complementary Vision of Hell will be discovered when all the walls are freed from the many coats of white-wash which have long hidden these treasures.