Doom Walls - Last Judgement

In many of the little Parish Churches in England during the Medieval period, Doom Walls were painted. These showed the Last Judgement, and in particular the consequences of Heaven and Hell. They were painted on a large scale mostly dating from the 12th and 13th centuries. Dooms were encouraged by the early medieval Church as an instrument to highlight the contrasts between the reward of Heaven and the agony of Hell so as to guide Christians away from misbehaviour and sin. A Doom was usually positioned either on the liturgical Western wall so that it was visible as worshipers left the church, or at the front, the Chancel end, often on an arch, so that it would be constantly visible to worshipers as they faced the altar during services.

This Doom Wall painting is a detail from St. Andrew's Church, near Cambridge. In the bottom left hand corner you can see the dead arising, those that are going to Heaven go off to the left and those that are off to Hell leave on the right.

Doom wall from St. Mary's Church, near Oxford

Here again the saved are shown on the left and the doomed on the right.

I wrote here about the how the right hand of God is considered powerful and the left hand weak. If you were viewing these Doom walls from within then the people that are saved are in fact going to the right and the doomed to the left.

There are a number of factors responsible for the loss of so many wall paintings. The Reformation led to monasteries being disbanded so destroying a main source of learning and art. The paintings were sadly often white washed over by the Puritans, particularly during the Commonwealth period.

St. Nicholas, Lower Oddington, Gloucestershire. It is possible to make out a hell fire with people in it. The devils seem to be wearing stripes. One of them has a pair of bellows blowing air into the fire.

St. Peter and St. Paul church in Pickering, Yorkshire.

This is particularly grusome scene, and a Warning to Blasphemers, in which those who have taken the Lord's name in vain are shown tearing apart his body in the mouth of hell. One can be seen plucking out his heart!!!

Some gentler medieval wall paintings.

The wheel of Life

Above images from St Mary's Kempley, Gloucestershire 

The above images come from St. Peter and St. Paul, Pickering, Yorkshire and show St. George and the Dragon, and the beheading of John the Baptist
Due to their age, roughly 800 years old, and the fact that they were covered in a white wash paint for so many years, these images are not very clear.

images courtesy wikipedia