Newly revealed Tudor wall paintings now on view in Welsh church

The first stage of revealing the magnificent wall paintings at Llancarfan church in the Vale of Glamorgan is complete, and for the first time these important discoveries are available for viewing by the general public. A video showing these discoveries is available from the BBC.

Discovered only in 2007, these paintings have been painstakingly uncovered by the gradual removal of the limewash coating. They show a dynamic St. George saving the princess from the dragon, a full tableaux of the Seven Deadly Sins, and a youth being led by Death. They show the surprising vivacity and subtlety in late medieval British wall painting.

This is one of the most important finds in British wall paintings in many years, and present a challenge to show how our contemporary conservation attitudes can preserve them, after the disasters of both the repaintings of the nineteenth-century and the occasionally even more destructive techniques of the 1950s and 60s.

The church also recently conserved its wooden reredos, also preserving its subtle polychromy.

See more images of the splendid wall paintings in this excellent Flickr set by Nick Kaye.