The Spirit of Religion
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[ Play
Narrated and Animated Movie ! ] Beneath a cross, whose rays pour down from the sky, representative figures of a nation kneel in prayer: a king, a mother and child, a man and a woman - he, a soldier. A bishop, with his back to us, reads from the prayerbook. And in the background, a part-built cathedral shows the growing, continuing power of a living faith.
In comparison to those in the Robing Room or the Royal Gallery the mural paintings in the Lord's Chamber are, if anything, recessive rather than dominant. It has been hard for them to compete with the craftsmanship of Pugin's interior details, in particualr the maginificance of the throne.
At the time of the commission Victorian historians were looking back to the Middle Ages and their teaching proclaimed the virtues of the 'High Middle Ages'. The commissioning body chose subject matter which therefore extolled such virtues which the Victorian Age sought in its society: justice, religion and chivalry. Three frescoes directly represent these, whilst in the other three these virtues are expressed in historical narrative. In one, Prince Henry encounters the meaning of justice; in another, King Ethelbert is baptised into the Church in recognition of religion; and Edward III expresses the spirit of chivalry by founding the Order of the Garter, and making his son a knight.
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