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Medieval Wall Painting
in the
English Parish Church

Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire (†Winchester) C.14

The Three Living & Three Dead

Three Living & Three Dead, Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire

Although incomplete, this is on the whole a well-preserved example of the subject on the wall of the north aisle in the church. The leftmost Living man has disappeared with the plaster layer he was painted on, and the central Dead figure has been reduced to a few traces of dangling skeletal arms. Both the living figures are crowned; they appear to be male, but it is hard to tell. The scrollwork border is elegantly painted. Tristram described the rightmost Living man as richly dressed and bearded, and the one nearer the left-hand edge as young and beardless, but it is very hard to make these details out now.

Also at Hurstbourne Tarrant, which has an interesting, but complex medieval history are the remains of a painting of the Seven Deadly Sins, sometimes found in association with the Three Living and the the Three Dead (for fairly obvious reasons). Very little of it is left, but Sloth, reclining on a couch, is reasonably clear, so it, along with any other details I can salvage, will be here eventually.

† in page heading = Diocese