Context 152 - November 2017

34 C O N T E X T 1 5 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7 of St Paul. The fifth is of St Paul healing a man lame from birth at Lystra. The sixth shows St Peter and St Paul together, giving their defence before King Agrippa. The panels are interspersed with religious figures.The first figure is Judith from the Book of Deuteronomy. The second is St Lawrence, who was burnt to death over a gridiron. The third is of St Peter, holding the keys to heaven.The fourth is of Jesus himself, with his arms outspread and welcoming. The fifth figure is of St Paul, who was martyred in Rome, and being a Roman citizen was entitled to be executed by beheading. The sixth figure is of Moses with theTen Commandments. The seventh figure is St Mary Magdalene, recognisable by her long, flowing hair, with which she washed Jesus feet at the Last Supper. The reredos is Violet Pinwill’s grandest piece of wood carving in the church. It has an upper portion featuring carvings of the annunciation, the crucifixion and the descent from the cross. Between these scenes are seated the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. All of this is surmounted by the figure of the risen Christ.The lower section houses a large alabaster panel of the Nativity.The panel echoes the work of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones, who was commissioned to paint two monumental paintings for the chancel of the Church of St John the Apostle, Torquay, in 1887. The first painting is ‘The Nativity’, in which Mary reclines protectively around the infant Jesus while Joseph looks on. To the left are three angels bearing the symbols of the Passion and the Crucifixion. The inscription at the top of the painting is in Latin, which translated reads: ‘Because of the misery of the poor and the groaning of the needy, now I will arise, saith the Lord’. The second painting is ‘The King and the Shepherd’. The painting combines the voyages of the magi and the shepherds to Bethlehem. Angels have been introduced to lead each traveller by the hand on their journey. In this painting the Latin inscription translated reads: ‘Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us’. The paintings suggest that Jesus came for the poor and the needy, and they suggest equality, in the face of divinity, between the wealthy king and the humble peasant. In her alabaster panel Violet Pinwill combines all these images from both the Burne-Jones paintings. The panel avoids a realistic approach and captures the romantic dream-like quality of the Burne-Jones paintings. The simple first-world-war memorial with Christ on the Cross was carved to commemorate the men of the parish who died in the war. The symbolism of Christ suffering on the cross focuses on the compassionate and humanitarian aspects of Christianity. A small plaque has been added below to commemorate those who died in the second world war. Jesus and (far right) Judith at St Peter and St Paul, Ermington Photos by Grant Elliott Grant Elliott, an associate architect at LHC Architecture, is involved with heritage projects, including voluntary restoration work at St Peter and St Paul, Ermington. Sources Carnegie Museum of Art Chaytor, E. (2000) Ermington Days , Melinga Publishing Gray,T. (2012) Devon’s Ancient Bench Ends , Mint Press Obituary (1957) The Times , London Wilson, H. (2016) ‘The Emergence of the Pinwill Sisters’, Devon Buildings Group Newsletter 34, 59–67. Wilson, H. Catalogue ofWoodcarving by the Pinwill Sisters : www. pinwillwoodcarving. org.uk