Walter of Durham
Walter of Durham (died c. 1305) was a thirteenth-century painter and craftsman who was in service to
Westminster Palace and Westminster Abbey, included the decoration of the walls and ceiling of the Painted Chamber, the painting and gilding of royal tombs, and the construction of the Coronation Chair to house the Stone of Scone
.
Under Henry III
Walter of Durham was already established as a master painter by 1265, when he is known to have painted statues in
Westminster Palace for Henry III. The following year he restored murals destroyed by the palace fire of 1263, in what later became known as the Painted Chamber. In 1270 he was appointed to a royal serjeanty with the unofficial role of pictor regis. He performed the normal duties of a medieval painter, which included carpentry. Under Henry III, he and his workshop continued to work in the Palace and in Westminster Abbey, and also designed a barge for the queen, Eleanor of Provence.[1]
Under Edward I
He continued to work in
Westminster Palace in 1289 under Edward I, making further repairs to the Painted Chamber in the 1290s. In Westminster Abbey in the 1290s he decorated the tombs of Henry III and Eleanor of Castile, the wife of Edward I; at Blackfriars he painted the tomb for her heart. His last recorded commission was between 1297 and 1300, when he painted and crafted the Coronation Chair, a gilded and painted wooden chair. It was installed in Westminster Abbey next to the shrine of Edward the Confessor and housed the Stone of Scone, which Edward I captured from the Scots in 1296.[2]
Legacy
The painted chamber was destroyed by fire in 1834. During repairs in 1816, four of the original 13th-century ceiling panels of a
Charles Stothard made watercolour copies for Volume VI of Vetusta Monumenta, published by the Society of Antiquaries; and Thomas Crofton Croker, clerk of works at Westminster, produced an additional set, now held by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Ashmolean Museum. Reconstructions of Walter's tomb paintings by E. W. Tristram can still be seen in Westminster Abbey.[3][4]
Gallery
-
Watercolour copies of window reveals from Painted Chamber,Charles Stothard -
The coronation chair in Westminster Abbey
Notes
References
- Binski, Paul (2004), "Walter of Durham", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Liversidge, Michael; Binski, Paul (1995), "Two Ceiling Fragments from the Painted Chamber at Westminster Palace", The Burlington Magazine, 137 (1109): 491–501, JSTOR 886532
- "Panel Paintings from the Palace of Westminster, London, 1263–1266". British Museum. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
- Rodwell, Warwick (2013), The Coronation Chair and Stone of Scone: History, Archaeology and Conservation, Oxbow Books, ISBN 978-1782971535
- Tudor-Craig, Pamela (1957), "The Painted Chamber at Westminster", Archaeological Journal, 114: 92–105,
External links
- Oak ceiling ornament from Painted Chamber, Sir John Soane's Museum