Bloomsbury Murals - St Michael and All Angels Church, Berwick - in VR 360 Video
Bloomsbury Murals - St Michael and All Angels Church, Berwick.
Labelled & in Virtual Reality
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As you approach the church along a windy pathway, you could be forgiven for thinking you are just visiting another quaint country church. How wrong you would be - as will become all to evident the moment you enter the church.
The Wow-Moment comes from the enormity of bright and large paintings on the walls of such a small, intimate, rural church.
What greets you could be similar to what would have greeted worshipers before the Reformation - a beautifully decorated church. Prior to the reformation churches were brightly decorated with patterns, pictures and imagery that lifted the spirit and recounted & celebrated biblical stories. After the Reformation rich decoration was removed or whitewashed over.
Prior to World War 2 Berwick church would have been the sombre grey building that we are all to familiar with today. That all changed when the artists resident at Charleston were commissioned by the Bishop of Chichester to ‘decorate’ Berwick church.
Duncan Grant who in 1940 worked briefly as a war artist, had wanted for some time to decorate Berwick church. His desire was matched by that of the then Bishop of Chichester who wished to bring modern ecclesiastical art into places of worship. The pair were finally introduced by a friend of Duncan Grant’s aunt. Within a very short time Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell had developed some initial plans for the church. Although there was some resistance from within the Church the go-ahead was finally given in October 1941.
Funding for the project came from various sources including Maynard Keynes and Peter Jones the owner of the Peter Jones department stores.
The work commenced in a neighbouring barn that was lent to the artists by their friend Maynard Keynes who lived at Tilton. In the barn/studio Duncan and Vanessa arranged a tableau of local people to model the biblical scene they wished to portray. The artists then painted onto large sheets of plasterboard that were subsequently attached to the walls of the church.
Viewing the pictures alongside the views from outside the church, it is not difficult to see how the artists depicted heaven by placing views of the downs in the background of their compositions, and depicting hell, in the ‘Christ in Glory, by placing three military figures beneath that of Christ.
The commission was finally completed in 1943.
The pulpit is not as painted by Vanessa Bell back in the 1940s. The three central panels originally depicted Saints Gabriel, Raphael and Michael. However they were vandalised in 1962 and were repainted by Duncan Grant to designs by Angelica Bell. It is interesting that they did not attempt to repair what had been lost but to replace it. This was ‘common-practice’ at Charleston when items need to be repaired or replaced.
The surviving far left / right panels cannot be seen in this picture. The far left panel was probably painted by Vanessa and the far right by Angelica.
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Sources - church literature and “Bloomsbury in Sussex” by Simon Watney, 2007
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For more info please visit their website: http://www.berwickchurch.org.uk
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