The Dance of Death
The only known recordings of the Dance of Death in the Guild Chapel are Puddephat's sketches, conjectural painting and a close up of one frame showing the Patriarch and King being led away. The question of how accurate Puddephat's recording of the scene came to light when photographs taken whilst he was painting his scenes were studied which raised concerns over whether the painting should be included in the model of the Guild Chapel. It can be confirmed that a scene of the Dance of Death was pained along the north wall of the chancel as it was sighted and commented upon by John Stowe in 1576 (Davidson 1988 pp 11).
Please click the image to view Puddephat's photographs of the north wall of the nave and his conjectural paintings.
Viewing Puddephat's photographs it is hard to see any detail on the wall that would have allowed him to confidently paint his conjectural image -the condition of the wall makes it almost impossible to pick out any detail. By manipulating the photograph in Photoshop it was possible to view some of the separate compartments which made up the painting which were completely different to Puddephat's conjectural image. Another problem was that the figures painted by Puddephat were almost identical in style and form to those of the scene in Paris. It seemed as though Puddephat had simply copied the French scene not being able to accurately depict the scene in the Guild Chapel.
A possible clue to the accuracy of the scene painted by Puddephat came from the location and order of the accompanying stanzas which can be confirmed from photographic evidence (DR399/5/5) although the translations of the stanzas do involve considerable conjecture and other sources. However it was the order of the stanzas which was key from the point of view of this project.
The stanzas recorded by Puddephat are actually in a completely different order to those of the French which means that the figures would also have been in a different order. If Puddephat had simply copied the French the figures and stanzas would be in the same order:
It also would seem that although Puddephat copied the style of the French figures he tried to adjust the scene to fit the different shapes of compartments that were still evident n the Guild Chapel wall. In the French scene the figures are shown beneath two arches with a corbel dividing the two arches; in the Guild Chapel the arches are not shown but the corbel is still present. It would appear that Puddephat, although copying the French figures has done his best to adjust his painting to fit with the fragmentary remains and has adjusted the order and shape of the figures and compartments accordingly.
Clearly the Guild Chapel Dance of Death by Puddephat is not exactly as it would have appeared but the order of the figures and stanzas is correct and the image was not simply copied verbatim from the French version. Without further examination of the wall with X-Ray photography, which may still be inconclusive, the painting by Puddephat is at the current time is probably the closest image in terms of accuracy, although it is acknowledged that further research may lead to a revision of this opinion.
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