3-043-765 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Old wall-painting in Chaldon Church, Surrey, 1872. '...the rude painting on the west wall [dates from the twelfth century]...The design will at once remind a literary scholar of Dante's "Divina Commedia;" but this picture is a hundred years older than Dante's poem..."The Ladder of Salvation of the Soul, and the Road to Heaven," is the main subject; but Hell and Purgatory are likewise represented...The lower section comprises the torments of the damned; in the upper section is shown the salvation of the blessed. In the centre is the ladder, at the top of which is the figure of Christ...In the upper part are figures getting up the ladder; while in the lower part are figures falling down to destruction...The souls of equivocating or hypocritical sinners must walk over [the] sharp and jagged edge [of] a bridge of spikes...to the left hand, is a large cauldron filled with burning souls...The fire beneath is continually stirred by assiduous fiends...A drunken monk, with his bottle, is carried off by a gigantic demon...on the right hand, we see the familiar theme of "Christ Harrowing Hell,"...a prostrate Satan...lies bound in chains, while the Saviour...forces open the monstrous jaws, and releases...souls of the elders of mankind'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.