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This Doom in the traditional position above
the chancel arch is unusual in the absence from it of the judging
Christ. In some cases this is because the roof has been lowered
and the upper part of the Doom lost, but that does not seem to
have happened here. Instead the human drama of the Resurrection
General on earth is concentrated on, with two scrolls at the top
centre, the one on the left still quite readable and bearing the
words ‘Venite, benedicti patris mei’ [Come, ye blessed of my
Father] and the other to the right reading ‘Discedite, maledicti’
[Depart, ye cursed]. Two angels with trumpets swoop down to
announce the End and the dead, many of them women, rise from their
graves. Those on the left look surprised but generally tranquil,
while those on the right - a man with his hands raised in horror
and a woman with her head in her hands - are already despairing,
perhaps at the sight of a yellow devil, accompanied by a coiled
serpent (just above the edge of the chancel arch) pushing chained
souls towards Hell.
Below is a detail of the righthand side showing
the chained damned. There are not enough legs to match the number
of heads or torsos shown here, but the upper classes are well
represented, with a king and queen (second and third left),
several tonsured priests, and a bishop with a mitre at the right.
More yellow devils pull them into Hell, dragging them along a
black surface with dull yellowish flames rising from it. The red
Mouth of Hell looms on the return of the chancel arch wall at the
right. Here is a link (also at the top of this page) to this
detail, and to Heaven on the opposite wall. Click for Heaven
and Hell
The above is copied from Anne Marshall's very
informative site about church wall paintings. See her page
about south Leigh, with excellent photographs, at http://www.paintedchurch.org/sthleigh.htm
The aftermath in Heaven, shown at the
eastern end of the north wall (the extreme lefthand edge of the
Doom proper can be glimpsed at the right). Carefully painted
architecture of Heaven, with angels on the towers, forms the
background, in front of which St. Peter, his key held prominently,
welcomes souls. Two of them are crowned and all stand on a golden
pavement surrounded by undulating flowery hills. (The figure
holding a shield at the right is a carved corbel projecting from
the wall, not a painted detail).
A grimmer welcome awaits the damned, at the eastern end of the
south wall. Gleeful devils, a large red one grinning maniacally at
the bottom of the scene, and a yellow one within the Mouth of Hell
itself, haul on the ends of the chains securing the damned to pull
them into Hell. A dragon, grinning like the devils, but otherwise
showing a remarkable resemblance to some of Dürer’s Apocalyptic
beasts (not after all far removed in date from this painting) is
shown protruding from Hell. As in the main picture, murky flames
rise from the black background - Miltonic ‘darkness visible’
in 15th century rural Oxfordshire.
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