The Betrayal of Jesus and his trial before Pontius Pilate

The betrayal of Jesus and the Trial before Pilate.

This section of the "Passion" medieval wall paintings can be seen to the right of the Last Supper.

The initial description of this painting says that we see Judas Jesus and two Roman soldiers. The scene is not clear. to the right of the betrayal is Jesus at the Sanhedrin court before Pontius Pilate.

The description from the church guide says "Christ’s hands are bound and He is blindfolded" - this is not easy to see.

There are definitely Roman soldiers but the blindfolding and the hand binding of Christ cannot be made out. The biblical account was that tis was the case but the interpretation of this is problematic.

As part of the Passion cycle these paintings would be consistant. due to the loss of any later depictions of the cycle it possible that there was either a road to calvery or a crucifiction scene or both. the section of the north wall to thr far right is now occupied by a victorian buttress. in a similar manner the area of the North wall below this section could have depicted the three dead of the Three Living and three dead.

That being said the painting shows a clear figure to the far left of the composition. whether this of Jesus or another that would have been present during these events.

The recent renovation has stabilized the painting as light wash has been added to enhance their appearance. No extra detail has been uncovered but the figures are more distinct as the background wash has been made more even to suppress the residual lime wash that the depiction was covered in the Reformation. (Need to check to see what Tom says he did here).

Both the Betrayal and the Trial of Jesus are well known Bible stories and it is easy to interprate what you see here with what the Gospels say. The Binding and Blindfolding are not clear and the actual Betrayal where Judas identifies Christ are pretty much left to your own interpritation.

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