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Medieval Wall Painting
in the
English Parish Church

Goxhill, Lincolnshire (†Lincoln) c.1450

Crucifixion

Crucifixion, with Mary and John, Godshill

This ‘detached’ Crucifixion is on the east wall of the now-blocked south porch, which would once have been the parishioners’ usual entrance to the church. There was another subject here, perhaps the Entombment, and traces of it still remain.

Mary stands to the left, and St John the Evangelist to the right, of the crucified Christ All three figures are fairly stocky and solid in the usual 15th century ‘realistic’ fashion, and they do not compare for elegance to their counterparts at, say, Brent Eleigh (link below), but they have been painted with a good deal of skill nevertheless. There is some blue on John’s robe, and traces of it on Mary’s, I think.

In all probability, this is a ‘devotional’treatment of the subject, intended to remind people entering the church why they were there, but it is also possible that there were other Passion scenes elsewhere in the body of the church, as well as the tentatively identified Entombment mentioned above. There may have been earlier painting beneath this, too, and possibly below it as well – horizontal lines suggesting the border of another subject are visible near the lower edge of this painting.

Website of All Saints, Goxhill