The Tudor period begins with the reign of the Tudor family, starting with King Henry VII, and continues through the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, from the mid 15th century to the early 17th century. The Tudor architectural style is characterised by the show of half timbers on the exterior of the home, steep-pitched roofs and casement windows with rectangular or diamond-shape panes. The interior style known as Tudor makes use of decorative wood carvings, heavy furniture and symbolic motifs such as the Tudor rose.
Although many rooms in the early Renaissance were wainscoted or hung with tapestries for warmth, others were decorated with wall paintings upon plaster. To the masterpieces carried out by the artists of Italy and the Low Countries there is no parallel in England ; and interiors enriched by decoration in the full Italian manner were not met with in private houses until the latter part of the seventeenth century. English wall painting was rare and of a modest character, entirely unaffected by the work of Holbein in Henry VIII.'s palace of Whitehall, and Rubens, a century later, on the ceiling of the Banqueting House. The general use of wainscot (and still later, of wall-paper) suppressed or overlaid such decorations which, as a rule, only come to light during alterations or restorations, and have been in many cases destroyed by workmen before they could be recorded and figured. They are painted both in black or colours in oil colours in a rapid brush work, often without the use of stencils. The extent to which such painting was practised is shown by the con­siderable remains which have been discovered at Rothamsted where, besides a painting in the dining-room, there are traces of mural design at the dais end, and painted newels on the wall of the staircase hall. The designs range from simple repeating devices to heraldic and ornamental compositions and figure subjects, often both crude in design and summary in execution. The collection of designs shown in the Saffron Walden Museum (which were mainly obtained in the immediate neighbourhood) is also evidence of the wide prevalence of this colour decoration in houses of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and early seventeenth centuries in the eastern counties.
Of simple black and white designs, partaking of the character of Italian cut velvets, there is an example preserved in the Priest's House, West Hoathly. The design consists of a series of octagons, within which are polygonal compartments filled with sprays of roses and vines. There existed three rooms decorated in black and white in a small one­storied house known as Campions, in the parish of Saffron Walden. In two rooms in which the designs were almost identical, the oak studs were painted black, and down each compartment enclosed by the studs bold black zigzags were painted forming triangular compartments, enclosing a formal design. In an upper room in the same housea brilliant design in eight colours has been preserved. It represents a semicircular-headed arcade of spirally-twisted columns outlined in black and white, in which the panels are filled in by a conventional design representing a curtain or tapestry hanging from the arches. Above the arcading is a horizontal frieze of flowers and foliage, painted on a light purple ground, while on a panel above is inscribed in black letters " Gyve to the pore, Spend and be blest."
In a house at Royston coloured distemper decoration was found in opening out the upper part of a closed staircase. Here the wall surface is divided into panels executed in stencil and by hand. The stencilled panels are in chrome colour, with an Indian red background, and the borders on each side of these panels dividing them from the panels executed by hand are in Indian red. These panels show a vertical design of fruit, birds, and an armless foliated terminal figure.
The royal arms and animals were often represented. In a house in Market Street, Rye, the mural painting consists of a frieze with the royal arms and cartouches bearing texts from the Bible, while beneath there is a flowing design, in which is represented an elephant, a stag, a hound, a fox, a swan, and various birds. Later in date are the mural paintings discovered behind wainscot at Rothamsted. In the dining-room, the upper portion of the decoration represents a battle scene, while the lower is painted to represent Renaissance columns. In the shell­headed niches between these is represented an animal. The colour in this example is yellowish-brown shaded with black and relieved with white lights, representing a marble such as giallo antico or Sienna. The painting appears to be of the latter half of the sixteenth century. There is, in addition, in a corridor, a panelled treatment which is also marbled, and arabesques and other detail in the hall.
In the frieze in the great chamber at Gilling, which is painted on boards, the design consists of a formal tree, hung with the shields of the dwellers in each Wapen­take of Yorkshire whom the visitation in 1584. recognised as entitled to coat armour. As there are not enough Wapentakes to go round, there is in the intervening space a painting of a party sitting on benches backed by a treillage of briars and vines. Figure subjects are an interesting class; at Pittleworth Manor in Hampshire were lately discovered on the walls of an upper room a very complete painted decoration of two dates. In the centre of one wall are the royal arms, and to the left of these Dives, seated at table among a company dressed in costumes indicating luxury and extravagance, while (to the right of the royal arms) Dives. is shown about to strike Lazarus. The wall to the left of the entrance door is painted with a rich pomegranate-patterned textile, which is carried dyer the oak studs, giving the appearance of hanging folds.
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Michael Jourdain was an architect and dedicated his later years to travelling and compiling images of listed homes and seeing to revive it's look his. This is now readily available at reasonable prices at http://wallpanellingcorp.com/
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