Thanks to The Pilgrim Trust, the next phase of the conservation project in the Guild Chapel is poised to begin.
We need your help to reveal one of the last great secrets in the Chapel, a medieval wall-painting hidden from sight since the early-nineteenth century.
With your help, we will be able to remove the panels in the northwest corner of the building and finally solve the mystery of the painting, recorded by the antiquarian, Thomas Fisher, in 1804 when some of the wall-paintings were first rediscovered.
Fisher didn’t identify the image, but other early commentators suggested it might represent one of the Seven Deadly Sins, a recurring theme in the Chapel’s wall-paintings – pride, perhaps, or avarice? Then, in 1988, the well-known wall-paintings expert, Clifford Davidson, identified the painting as the Whore of Babylon, a personification of evil; the text is fragmentary, but one of the scrolls appears to contains the word ‘Babylonis’.
The cost of revealing this painting is estimated at £5,000.
By contributing to our conservation appeal, you can become part of this exciting and unique project and help us to finally understand the mysterious painting hidden for so long!