Alan Halsey
Details of the apparently little-known 12th century mural at Chaldon church, south Croydon. I have a vivid memory of first seeing it aged eight or nine; a visit nearly sixty years later made me wonder about its subtle influence, that predilection I've had for flattened perspective, the attempt to map the unseen. The details are mostly taken from the lower panel depicting Hell; the Heaven above it is predictably less engaging, as Dante was to prove a century later.
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Mandeville probably lifted his report of the dog-headed nation from Herodotus; not devils but, much worse, foreigners. Photos taken in the year of Brexit, on the day Mr Trump became president-elect.
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