Scottish Renaissance painted ceilings
Encyclopedia
A number of Scottish
houses and castles built between 1540 and 1640 have painted ceilings. This is a distinctive national style, though there is common ground with similar work elsewhere, especially in France
, Spain
and Scandinavia
. Most surviving examples are painted simply on the boards and joists forming the floor of the room above. Rooms or galleries in attic storeys were fully lined with thin pine boarding and painted. The fashion was superseded by decorative plasterwork and sometimes the painted ceilings were broken up to form lathing for the new plaster.
with chalk and pigments, including natural ochres
, vermilion
, and orpiment
often mixed with indigo
to form vibrant greens. The pine timber was imported from Norway
. The names of many painters have been found in contemporary records, but as yet no painter of any particular surviving ceiling has been identified through archival research. However, it is recorded that in 1554, Edinburgh painters led by Walter Binning assaulted an ousider, David Warkman, who had been painting a ceiling. It appears that only the wealthiest of the merchant classes and aristocrats could afford this decoration, though the picture is unbalanced as more modest interiors do not survive.
at the top of buildings incorporated vignettes with biblical or emblem
atic scenes. Others employ Renaissance
grotesque
ornament including symbolic emblems. A gallery in a demolished building on Edinburgh's Castlehill
had scenes of the Apocalypse
and Christ asleep in a storm, set in the Forth valley
. Fragments survive in storage at the National Museums of Scotland
. Ceilings painted with rows of heraldic shields included; the gallery at Earlshall and Collairnie Castle
, Fife, a ceiling at Linlithgow
High Street, and Nunraw House
, East Lothian
.
Several surviving examples can be seen in Edinburgh
; including John Knox's House, Gladstone's Land
, and the Canongate Tollbooth museum
. The birthroom at Edinburgh Castle
was painted by James Anderson to commemorate the fiftieth birthday of James VI, and restored by Walter Melville in 1693. Gladstone's Land dating from 1619 also has relatively well preserved decoration on plaster contemporary with the ceiling. More extensive domestic mural painting survives at Kinneil House
, dating from the 1550s, and painted for the Regent Arran, who employed Walter Binning on some of his projects. Aberdour Castle
, Fife, has one of latest ceilings c.1633, and Huntingtower Castle
the earliest c.1540. Ceilings at Crathes Castle
are decorated with the Nine Worthies
and the Muses. As at Crathes, beams at Traquair House
and Sailor's Walk, Kirkcaldy, carry proverbial and biblical admonitions, written in Middle Scots
. A gallery at Provost Skene
's House, Aberdeen, is similar in format to the Castlehill painting, St. Mary's, Grandtully
, and the Skelmorlie Aisle
, Largs
, signed by John Stalker, are painted on thin lining boards. Culross Palace
, built by Sir George Bruce of Carnock
, has a variety of painted interiors including suites of emblems, geometric patterns and biblical scenes.
Other ceilings remain in private buildings, and a number of ceilings were salvaged and stored by Historic Scotland
including two from Dysart, Fife. The National Museum of Scotland displays a ceiling from Rossend Castle
Burntisland, Fife, and a screen from Wester Livilands, near Stirling. Stirling Smith Museum and Art Gallery
has a ceiling from Robert Drummond of Carnock
's house. A room from Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline
's house at Pinkie is displayed at Edinburgh's Huntley House Museum
. Painted beams from Midhope Castle
were moved to Abbey Strand
Edinburgh, and a ceiling from Prestongrange House
is at Napier University
though these last two are not regularly open to the public. Two rooms in the Missoni Hotel in Edinburgh still have painted ceilings from the original early seventeenth century tenement
building. Painted ceilings concealed by later plasterwork continue to be discovered: another ceiling in Edinburgh was discovered in 2010.
called the Grottesco, printed by Gerard de Jode
in Antwerp (1565-71), and another set the Caryatidum depicting architectural 'terms' - load bearing figures. The ceiling is dated 1581 and at that time complimented a sideboard gifted by Esmé Stuart. At Rossend, emblems by Claude Paradin, Gabriele Simeoni and Alciato were used, again with ornamental detail from Vredeman de Vries's Grottesco. Emblems at Culross Palace were adapted from A Choice of Emblems by Geffrey Whitney
, London (1586). The tiny engravings made by the French goldsmith Etienne Delaune
supplied the ornament at the Skelmorlie Aisle. Amongst the sources used at Pinkie were de Vries's Perspectiva, (1605), Otto van Veen's
Emblemata Horatiana, Antwerp (1607), and Denis de Lebey de Batilly's Emblemata, Frankfurt (1596). These demonstrate the use of renaissance pattern books by painters and patrons in Scotland, and coupled with copious classical quotations, the wealth and topicality of the library of Alexander Seton.
. Daniel Wilson described the ceiling at length in his Memorials of Edinburgh. At the end of the century, Andrew Lyons, artist and antiquarian, made drawings of a number of ceilings (also in RCAHMS), and published articles in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, PSAS.
In the first half of twentieth century conservation works were led by John Houston of the Ministry of Works. Ian Hodkinson, a conservator
, and Michael R Apted, an inspector of ancient monuments
, were instrumental in the rescue and salvage of a number of painted ceilings, published in Apted's 1966 monograph, and a series of PSAS articles. Apted made an exhaustive search of archive references to painting for his Edinburgh PhD, and this formed the basis for his collaboration with Susan Hannabuss on Painters in Scotland: A Biographical Dictionary published in 1978. John Cornforth admired the contribution of the Stenhouse Conservation Centre as antiquarian and romantic. More recently, Michael Bath, emeritus professor of English, Strathclyde University, has re-assessed the corpus with a particular focus on the emblems used and their origins and meanings to the Scottish patrons. Bath has published a number of articles and a detailed illustrated 2003 monograph exploring sources with a useful comprehensive inventory of examples both extant and destroyed. Ailsa Murray's 2009 article explores conservation methods.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
houses and castles built between 1540 and 1640 have painted ceilings. This is a distinctive national style, though there is common ground with similar work elsewhere, especially in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
. Most surviving examples are painted simply on the boards and joists forming the floor of the room above. Rooms or galleries in attic storeys were fully lined with thin pine boarding and painted. The fashion was superseded by decorative plasterwork and sometimes the painted ceilings were broken up to form lathing for the new plaster.
Paint and painters
The paint used employed protein sizeSizing
Sizing or size is any one of numerous specific substances that is applied to or incorporated in other material, especially papers and textiles, to act as a protecting filler or glaze....
with chalk and pigments, including natural ochres
Ochre
Ochre is the term for both a golden-yellow or light yellow brown color and for a form of earth pigment which produces the color. The pigment can also be used to create a reddish tint known as "red ochre". The more rarely used terms "purple ochre" and "brown ochre" also exist for variant hues...
, vermilion
Vermilion
Vermilion is an opaque orangish red pigment, similar to scarlet. As a naturally occurring mineral pigment, it is known as cinnabar, and was in use around the world before the Common Era began. Most naturally produced vermilion comes from cinnabar mined in China, and vermilion is nowadays commonly...
, and orpiment
Orpiment
Orpiment, As2S3, is a common monoclinic arsenic sulfide mineral. It has a Mohs hardness of 1.5 to 2 and a specific gravity of 3.46. It melts at 300 °C to 325 °C...
often mixed with indigo
Indigo
Indigo is a color named after the purple dye derived from the plant Indigofera tinctoria and related species. The color is placed on the electromagnetic spectrum between about 420 and 450 nm in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet...
to form vibrant greens. The pine timber was imported from Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. The names of many painters have been found in contemporary records, but as yet no painter of any particular surviving ceiling has been identified through archival research. However, it is recorded that in 1554, Edinburgh painters led by Walter Binning assaulted an ousider, David Warkman, who had been painting a ceiling. It appears that only the wealthiest of the merchant classes and aristocrats could afford this decoration, though the picture is unbalanced as more modest interiors do not survive.
Types of patterns
The largest group of these ceilings have patterns of fruit and flowers, and may perhaps have evoked tapestry borders. Some ceilings in galleriesLong gallery
Long gallery is an architectural term given to a long, narrow room, often with a high ceiling. In British architecture, long galleries were popular in Elizabethan and Jacobean houses. They were often located on the upper floor of the great houses of the time, and stretched across the entire...
at the top of buildings incorporated vignettes with biblical or emblem
Emblem
An emblem is a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept — e.g., a moral truth, or an allegory — or that represents a person, such as a king or saint.-Distinction: emblem and symbol:...
atic scenes. Others employ Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
grotesque
Grotesque
The word grotesque comes from the same Latin root as "Grotto", meaning a small cave or hollow. The original meaning was restricted to an extravagant style of Ancient Roman decorative art rediscovered and then copied in Rome at the end of the 15th century...
ornament including symbolic emblems. A gallery in a demolished building on Edinburgh's Castlehill
Royal Mile
The Royal Mile is a succession of streets which form the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland.As the name suggests, the Royal Mile is approximately one Scots mile long, and runs between two foci of history in Scotland, from Edinburgh Castle at the top of the Castle...
had scenes of the Apocalypse
Apocalypse
An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
and Christ asleep in a storm, set in the Forth valley
River Forth
The River Forth , long, is the major river draining the eastern part of the central belt of Scotland.The Forth rises in Loch Ard in the Trossachs, a mountainous area some west of Stirling...
. Fragments survive in storage at the National Museums of Scotland
National Museums of Scotland
National Museums Scotland is the organization that runs several national museums of Scotland. It is one of the country's National Collections, and holds internationally important collections of natural sciences, decorative arts, world cultures, science and technology, and Scottish history and...
. Ceilings painted with rows of heraldic shields included; the gallery at Earlshall and Collairnie Castle
Collairnie Castle
Collairnie Castle is an L-plan castle in Dunbog, Fife, Scotland. The castle was extended in the 16th century, with a wing added of 4 storeys with an attic. The main block has been reduced to a single storey, and the tower is now incorporated into 19th-century a farm steading. Inside the remaining...
, Fife, a ceiling at Linlithgow
Linlithgow
Linlithgow is a Royal Burgh in West Lothian, Scotland. An ancient town, it lies south of its two most prominent landmarks: Linlithgow Palace and Linlithgow Loch, and north of the Union Canal....
High Street, and Nunraw House
White Castle, East Lothian
Whitecastle was originally a hillfort in East Lothian, Scotland, situated on the edge of the Lammermuir Hills, two miles south of the village of Garvald, . It later formed part of a landed estate which is known today as Nunraw...
, East Lothian
East Lothian
East Lothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy Area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Midlothian. Its administrative centre is Haddington, although its largest town is Musselburgh....
.
Several surviving examples can be seen in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
; including John Knox's House, Gladstone's Land
Gladstone's Land
Gladstone's Land is a surviving 17th century high-tenement house situated in the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has been restored and furnished by the National Trust for Scotland, and is operated as a popular tourist attraction....
, and the Canongate Tollbooth museum
Museum of Edinburgh
The Museum of Edinburgh is a museum in Edinburgh, Scotland, depicting the town's origins, history and legends. Situated in the late 16th-century Huntly House on the Royal Mile, it is maintained by Edinburgh City Council.-External links:*...
. The birthroom at Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...
was painted by James Anderson to commemorate the fiftieth birthday of James VI, and restored by Walter Melville in 1693. Gladstone's Land dating from 1619 also has relatively well preserved decoration on plaster contemporary with the ceiling. More extensive domestic mural painting survives at Kinneil House
Kinneil House
Kinneil House is a historic house to the west of Bo'ness in east-central Scotland. It was once the principal seat of the Hamilton family in the east of Scotland. The house was saved from demolition in 1936 when 16th-century mural paintings were discovered, and it is now in the care of Historic...
, dating from the 1550s, and painted for the Regent Arran, who employed Walter Binning on some of his projects. Aberdour Castle
Aberdour Castle
Aberdour Castle is located in the village of Easter Aberdour, Fife, Scotland. Parts of the castle date from around 1200, making Aberdour one of the two oldest datable standing castles in Scotland, along with Castle Sween in Argyll, which was built at around the same time.The earliest part of the...
, Fife, has one of latest ceilings c.1633, and Huntingtower Castle
Huntingtower Castle
Huntingtower Castle once known as Ruthven Castle or the Place [Palace] of Ruthven is located near the village of Huntingtower beside the A85 and near the A9, about 5km NW of the centre of Perth, Perth and Kinross, in central Scotland, on the main road to Crieff.- History :Huntingtower Castle was...
the earliest c.1540. Ceilings at Crathes Castle
Crathes Castle
Crathes Castle is a 16th century castle near Banchory in the Aberdeenshire region of Scotland. This harled castle was built by the Burnetts of Leys and was held in that family for almost 400 years...
are decorated with the Nine Worthies
Nine Worthies
The Nine Worthies are nine historical, scriptural and legendary personages who personify the ideals of chivalry as were established in the Middle Ages. All are commonly referred to as 'Princes' in their own right, despite whatever true titles each man may have held...
and the Muses. As at Crathes, beams at Traquair House
Traquair House
Traquair House, approximately 5 miles southeast of Peebles, is claimed to be the oldest continually inhabited house in Scotland. It is built in the style of a fortified mansion, and not strictly a castle...
and Sailor's Walk, Kirkcaldy, carry proverbial and biblical admonitions, written in Middle Scots
Middle Scots
Middle Scots was the Anglic language of Lowland Scotland in the period from 1450 to 1700. By the end of the 13th century its phonology, orthography, accidence, syntax and vocabulary had diverged markedly from Early Scots, which was virtually indistinguishable from early Northumbrian Middle English...
. A gallery at Provost Skene
Provost Skene
Sir George Skene, or Provost Skene, was Lord Provost of Aberdeen, Scotland in the 17th century from . Today he is most famous and widely known not for his time as Lord Provost, but for his house which is a major tourist attraction in Aberdeen....
's House, Aberdeen, is similar in format to the Castlehill painting, St. Mary's, Grandtully
Grandtully
Grandtully is a small village in Perthshire, Scotland.It is situated close to the River Tay, about 3 miles from Pitlochry...
, and the Skelmorlie Aisle
Skelmorlie Aisle
The Skelmorlie Aisle of Largs Old Kirk is the remains of a church in the town of Largs, Ayrshire, Scotland.-History:The majority of the kirk was demolished in 1802 when the new parish church came into use, but the aisle, a division of the once larger building containing the mausoleum, was...
, Largs
Largs
Largs is a town on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland, about from Glasgow. The original name means "the slopes" in Scottish Gaelic....
, signed by John Stalker, are painted on thin lining boards. Culross Palace
Culross Palace
Culross Palace is a late 16th - early 17th century merchant's house in Culross, Fife, Scotland.The palace, or "Great Lodging", was constructed between 1597 and 1611 by Sir George Bruce, the Laird of Carnock. Bruce was a successful merchant who had a flourishing trade with other Forth ports, the Low...
, built by Sir George Bruce of Carnock
George Bruce of Carnock
Sir George Bruce of Carnock was a Scottish merchant and engineer. He was born in Carnock, near Dunfermline.-Coal mining:...
, has a variety of painted interiors including suites of emblems, geometric patterns and biblical scenes.
Other ceilings remain in private buildings, and a number of ceilings were salvaged and stored by Historic Scotland
Historic Scotland
Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government, responsible for historic monuments in Scotland.-Role:As its website states:...
including two from Dysart, Fife. The National Museum of Scotland displays a ceiling from Rossend Castle
Rossend Castle
Rossend Castle is a historic building in Burntisland, a town on the south coast of Fife, Scotland.A keep, known as the Tower of Kingorne Wester, was in existence on the site from 1119. It was later referred to as Burntisland Castle, and by 1382 was called Abbot's Hall, as it was the home of the...
Burntisland, Fife, and a screen from Wester Livilands, near Stirling. Stirling Smith Museum and Art Gallery
Stirling Smith Museum and Art Gallery
Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum is an institution based in Stirling, Central Scotland, dedicated to the promotion of cultural and historical heritage and the arts, from a local scale to nationally and beyond. It is also known locally by its original name of "The Smith Institute"...
has a ceiling from Robert Drummond of Carnock
Robert Drummond of Carnock
Sir Robert Drummond of Carnock was Master of Work to the Crown of Scotland from 1579 to 1583. This was the responsibility for building and repair of palaces and castles. His appointment was made to be "as Sir James Hamilton of Finnart had it."...
's house. A room from Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline
Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline
Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline was a Scottish lawyer, judge and politician. He was Lord President of the Court of Session from 1598 to 1604 and Lord Chancellor of Scotland from 1604 to 1622....
's house at Pinkie is displayed at Edinburgh's Huntley House Museum
Museum of Edinburgh
The Museum of Edinburgh is a museum in Edinburgh, Scotland, depicting the town's origins, history and legends. Situated in the late 16th-century Huntly House on the Royal Mile, it is maintained by Edinburgh City Council.-External links:*...
. Painted beams from Midhope Castle
Midhope Castle
Midhope Castle is a 16th century tower house in Scotland. It is situated in the hamlet of Abercorn on the Hopetoun estate, About to the west of South Queensferry, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. It is located at ....
were moved to Abbey Strand
Royal Mile
The Royal Mile is a succession of streets which form the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland.As the name suggests, the Royal Mile is approximately one Scots mile long, and runs between two foci of history in Scotland, from Edinburgh Castle at the top of the Castle...
Edinburgh, and a ceiling from Prestongrange House
Prestongrange House
Prestongrange House is a historic house at Prestongrange near Prestonpans, East Lothian, Scotland, UK. It is situated near to two other historic houses, Hamilton House and Northfield House....
is at Napier University
Napier University
Edinburgh Napier is one of the largest higher education institutions in Scotland with over 17,000 students, including nearly 5,000 international students, from more than 100 nations worldwide.-History:...
though these last two are not regularly open to the public. Two rooms in the Missoni Hotel in Edinburgh still have painted ceilings from the original early seventeenth century tenement
Tenement
A tenement is, in most English-speaking areas, a substandard multi-family dwelling, usually old, occupied by the poor.-History:Originally the term tenement referred to tenancy and therefore to any rented accommodation...
building. Painted ceilings concealed by later plasterwork continue to be discovered: another ceiling in Edinburgh was discovered in 2010.
Sources of the designs
Some of the ceilings include pictures or emblems based on European printed books. Prestongrange's ceiling has comic figures from Richard Breton's Les songes drolatiques de Pantagruel, Paris (1565). Other ornament came from 17 engravings after Hans Vredeman de VriesHans Vredeman de Vries
Hans Vredeman de Vries was a Dutch Renaissance architect, painter, and engineer. Vredeman de Vries is known for his publication in 1583 on garden design and his books with many examples on ornaments and perspective ....
called the Grottesco, printed by Gerard de Jode
Gerard de Jode
Gerard de Jode was a cartographer, engraver and publisher who lived and worked in Antwerp during the 16th century. He was born in Nijmegen and died in Antwerp. In 1547 he was admitted to the Guild of St. Luke, and began his work as a publisher/printseller...
in Antwerp (1565-71), and another set the Caryatidum depicting architectural 'terms' - load bearing figures. The ceiling is dated 1581 and at that time complimented a sideboard gifted by Esmé Stuart. At Rossend, emblems by Claude Paradin, Gabriele Simeoni and Alciato were used, again with ornamental detail from Vredeman de Vries's Grottesco. Emblems at Culross Palace were adapted from A Choice of Emblems by Geffrey Whitney
Geoffrey Whitney
Geoffrey Whitney was an English poet, now best known for the influence on Elizabethan writing of the Choice of Emblemes that he compiled.-Life:...
, London (1586). The tiny engravings made by the French goldsmith Etienne Delaune
Étienne Delaune
Étienne Delaune, Delaulne, or De Laune, a French engraver, was born in Paris, or more probably at Orléans, in 1518. He commenced bis...
supplied the ornament at the Skelmorlie Aisle. Amongst the sources used at Pinkie were de Vries's Perspectiva, (1605), Otto van Veen's
Otto van Veen
Otto van Veen, also known by his Latinized name Otto Venius or Octavius Vaenius, was a painter, draughtsman, and humanist active primarily in Antwerp and Brussels in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century...
Emblemata Horatiana, Antwerp (1607), and Denis de Lebey de Batilly's Emblemata, Frankfurt (1596). These demonstrate the use of renaissance pattern books by painters and patrons in Scotland, and coupled with copious classical quotations, the wealth and topicality of the library of Alexander Seton.
Critical literature
There are no contemporary references to this type of decoration. Most examples were concealed behind later interiors or neglected in buildings which became lower status accommodation. In the early nineteenth century antiquarian interest was kindled by discovery during the demolition of buildings in Edinburgh and Dundee. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe and Rev. Sime rescued a part of the Apocalypse painting from Edinburgh's Castlehill and made a series of coloured record drawings now held by the Royal Commission (RCAHMS)Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government 'sponsored' [financed and with oversight] through Historic Scotland, an executive agency of the Scottish Government...
. Daniel Wilson described the ceiling at length in his Memorials of Edinburgh. At the end of the century, Andrew Lyons, artist and antiquarian, made drawings of a number of ceilings (also in RCAHMS), and published articles in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, PSAS.
In the first half of twentieth century conservation works were led by John Houston of the Ministry of Works. Ian Hodkinson, a conservator
Conservator (museum)
A conservator is a professional who works on the conservation of objects. Their work involves determining the structural stability of an object, addressing problems of chemical and physical deterioration, and performing corrective treatment based on an evaluation of the aesthetic, historic, and...
, and Michael R Apted, an inspector of ancient monuments
Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979
The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 or AMAAA was a law passed by the British government, the latest in a series of Ancient Monument Acts legislating to protect the archaeological heritage of Great Britain. Northern Ireland has its own legislation.Section 61 defines sites that...
, were instrumental in the rescue and salvage of a number of painted ceilings, published in Apted's 1966 monograph, and a series of PSAS articles. Apted made an exhaustive search of archive references to painting for his Edinburgh PhD, and this formed the basis for his collaboration with Susan Hannabuss on Painters in Scotland: A Biographical Dictionary published in 1978. John Cornforth admired the contribution of the Stenhouse Conservation Centre as antiquarian and romantic. More recently, Michael Bath, emeritus professor of English, Strathclyde University, has re-assessed the corpus with a particular focus on the emblems used and their origins and meanings to the Scottish patrons. Bath has published a number of articles and a detailed illustrated 2003 monograph exploring sources with a useful comprehensive inventory of examples both extant and destroyed. Ailsa Murray's 2009 article explores conservation methods.
External links
- Comparable painted ceiling of the aisle of the Lords of Neerlinter, Heilige Follianuskerk, Belgium
- Les Songes Drolatiques de Pantagruel, (1565), source for paintings at Prestongrange