Dead Men Walking: Meeting the '3 Living and 3 Dead' in Medieval Painting

Dead Men Walking: Meeting the 'Three Living and Three Dead' in Medieval English Wall Painting
In the late thirteenth-century a story burst into French courtly literature of an unnerving confrontation between three kings and three zombie-like figures who remind them that they too are mortal. This theme spread rapidly across Europe and can be found many medieval wall paintings in England, mostly in parish churches. Dr Miriam Gill's talk explores the eerie tale, the ways in which it was transferred from courtly to parish culture, and the meanings it carried for its viewers in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It is a story which opens a rare window onto a lively vernacular culture and the sophisticated images which told stories on the walls of churches.

Our speaker:

A widely-published expert on ecclesiastical imagery and iconography from the medieval period, Dr Gill is also Secretary of Leicester Vaughan College and currently teaches at Attenborough Arts, the Insitute for Continuing Education at Cambridge, and the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education, amongst others.

Our chosen charity:

We're asking for a small donation to attend the lecture, but all proceeds will go to help Food and Friendship. Twice a week, at their lunch clubs, they take leftover and unwanted food donations and cook them up into tasty hot lunches for elderly and learning disabled adults in Brighton and Hove. Many of its guests suffer reduced social networks due to bereavement, disability, health conditions such as dementia, and sensory impairments. Food and Friendship's lunch clubs provide a vital social lifeline that helps people feel connected to their community and improves their mental wellbeing.

On 6th January, you will receive an email that will give you the Zoom link and instructions to join the event. If you have any queries you can contact the organiser on our facebook page.

The image above is a detail featuring the 'Three Living and Three Dead' from a fresco in Tuse Church, Holbæk, Denmark. Wikimedia Commons, Jürgen Howaldt, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TuseKirke_Fresco_(B-4a).jpg

Event Venue

Online