PAINTING OF THE ASSASSINATION OF ARCHBISHOP BECKET 1838 ANTIQUE LITHOGRAPH

Original 1838 18 1/2 inch x 12 3/8 inch Hand-Coloured reprint of the 1807 Lithograph Titled PAINTING OF THE ASSASSINATION OF ARCHBISHOP BECKET AT THE WEST END OF THE NAVE OF THE CHAPEL OF THE TRINITY, STRATFORD UPON AVON IN WARWICKSHIRE.

The painting represents the Murder of St. Thomas a Becket. The Archbishop had taken refuge in his cathedral church at the altar of St. Benedict, which is here represented as furnished with two lighted tapers in cup-like candlesticks, a missal and a chalice. The manner in which the assassins approach corresponds exactly with the accounts given by the chronicles, though their military costume partakes more of the time of the painting than that of the event. As the black-letter inscriptions denote, William de Tracy and Reginald Fitzurse were the knights who struck the first blows, almost at the same time; then followed Hugh Morville; and lastly, Richard Brito. Behind is the faithful clerk, Edmund Grim, whose arm was nearly cut off in his endeavouring to ward off the blow of the first assassin, William de Tracy.

Drawn and Engraved by Thomas Fisher (1772 - 1836). Amateur painter, engraver and early lithographer.

In 1804 a scheme of wall paintings were discovered during restoration works in the Guild Chapel at Stratford-upon-Avon. They depicted scenes such as the Legend of the Discovery of the True Cross, the Last Judgement, Saint George slaying a Dragon, the Dance of Death and the martyrdom of Saint Thomas Beckett. Thomas Fisher, an English antiquary, produced coloured drawings of the frescos when they were discovered and published them in 1807. They were soon afterwards whitewashed or destroyed. In 1809 Fisher re-issued these plates along with facsimiles of original documents he had found during further investigations. Though it was Fisher’s intention to publish letterpress with all his plates, a stipulation of the 1818 Copyright Act regarding legal deposit requirements prevented him from doing so. He got around this by publishing his research in an 1835 edition of The Gentleman’s Magazine, then edited by the antiquary and publisher John Gough Nichols. Two years after Fisher’s death Nichols reprinted a luxury edition of the original plates, finally with letterpress, and featuring new engravings and facsimiles of previously unpublished material.
Lettered under image: “Scale One Inch and a Half to a Foot. - / Drawn 1804 and Published April the 20th 1807 by Thos Fisher, Hoxton.”

From ‘Ancient Allegorical, Historical, and Legendary Paintings, In Fresco, Discovered in the Summer of 1804, on the Walls of the Chapel of the Trinity, belonging to the Gilde of the Holy Cross, at Stratford-Upon-Avon’ published by Henry George Bohn, 4 York Street, Covent Garden, London. 1838.

Image size 12 1/4 inch x 9 inch

The lithograph is in very good condition. Reverse side blank.