Note on "Relics of Painting in Canterbury Cathedral"

http://kentarchaeology.org.uk/research/archaeologia-cantiana/ Kent Archaeological Society is a registered charity number 223382 © 2017 Kent Archaeological Society ( 339 ) NOTE ON "RELICS OE PAINTING IN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL." BY THOMAS B. BLACKMAN. lur the volume of Archceologia Oantiana, Vol. XXII. , is an article entitled " Relics of Decorative Painting now or formerly in Canterbury Cathedral," by the late Canon Scott Robertson, who gives an account of a " Painting on Wood of the Murder of Becket at the foot [really head] oi the tomb of King Henry IV. (ob. 1413)." The Canon says "forty-three years ago Captain George Austin, junior, made a careful sketch of this panel-painting, and from that sketch we have been permitted to reproduce the annexed illustration." Now there are people who have known the Cathedral for more than forty-three years, during which period it is in their recollection that this panel-painting of the murder of the Archbishop has always been in much the same defaced and obliterated state as now. Clearly, therefore, this sketch made by Captain Greorge Austin cannot have been taken from the original painting at the head of Henry IV.'s tomb. If not, where from ? I have before me a coloured engraving of " The Murder of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170. Engrav'd by J. Carter from his restor'd drawing of the defac'd parts of the original Painting on board, hung against the columnes at the head of the tomb of Henry IV. in Canterbury Cathedral, copied by him in its present state from a former drawing, both of which are now in the possession of Rd Bull, Esq1'. Puba as the act directs by J. Carter, Wood St., West1', July 1\ 1786." As Captain Ceorge Austin's sketch and this engraring of J. Carter's differ only in slight details and in colour, the former must have been made from this plate, which can be found in Carter's Ancient Sculpture and Painting in England, 2 vols., folio, published 1780—1787; and I think it due to the memory of a well-known artist and careful delineator of our ancient monuments and paintings that these facts should be known, especially as the mistake has appeared in the pages of Archceologia Oantiana. z 2