The Last Supper
The mural forms part of collection of wall paintings
in St. Mary's Belchamp Walter.
The Last Supper forms part of a "Passion Cycle". See Anne Marshall's
website The painted Church for more examples of Passion Cycles.
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The interesting feature in the depiction of Last Supper at Belchamp Walter is that of Judas. Anne Marshall describes it below.
Ickleton, Cambridgeshire Passion Cycle 1150-1200 - A true frescoe - Anne Marshall.
The description below sounds very similar to what you see at Belchamp Walter
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The Cycle as we have it begins at the west end (above) of the arcade, with a well-preserved Last Supper.
Judas is shown in his traditional position in early painting – on the opposite side of the table to everyone else.
He is in the act of taking a fish from a dish, placed immediately in front of Christ, on the table.
This may be intended to mean that Judas is a thief, or is greedily taking more than his share. Or of course the
appropriation of the fish may be heavily symbolic of his betrayal of Christ. Or both may be intended, as so often.
This particular iconographical detail is not unique in the history of art,
but the only other example I know of in the English church is at Belchamp Walter in Essex.
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In particular is the depiction of Judas stealing the bag of money and the fish.
What Anne says about the Last Supper at Belchamp Walter.
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To judge by the number of heads on the figures sitting at the table of the Last Supper at the right, there is a full
complement of disciples here, and apparently some attendants, or perhaps more likely, some of the Holy Women, too.
Most conspicuous are Christ himself, the tallest figure, in the centre, ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’, generally
taken to be St John, ‘leaning in His bosom’, as in John 13:21, and, very obviously singled out on the opposite side of
the table, Judas, whose figure is very unclear, perhaps as a result of deliberate, and early, damage. Very clear indeed,
though, is the bag in which Judas carries the disciples’ money, a remarkable artefact indeed with its cross-hatched pattern,
dangling from his left hand. With his right, Judas takes a fish from a dish beside him – a symbolic act, the significance of
which is commented on in more detail on the
page for the painting of the Last Supper at Ickleton, over the border in Cambridgeshire.
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According to Anne Marshall there is only one other example of this that she knows of:
This is at Ickleton, Cambridgeshire
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An incomplete, but very fine Passion Cycle above the arches of the North Arcade. The excellent guidebook in the church
rightly describes its discovery as ‘of national importance’. These paintings are not only of very early (1150-1200) date,
but also of the highest quality. More than that,
they are a very rare example of ‘true fresco’ technique in English wall painting.
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Fairstead
