Thing is, that restoration is probably far closer to the 15th century original than the dull, wooden finish. Things were painted bright colours, as that was a sign you could afford expensive pigments. Nobody did pastel shades in the Middle Ages (unless something was old and faded). Churches were not the bare, whitewashed interiors they became after Puritan iconoclasm swept across England, but were covered in what we would now think of as garish artwork. | |