Imaging the individual kneeling in prayer in English commemorative painting: continuity and adaptation 1375-1625 By Sally Badham In Towneley Hall (Lancashire) hangs a painting on board entitled ‘The Townley Family at Prayer’ (Fig. 1), the iconography of which includes both religious and secular aspects and has resonance for the afficionado of church art, especially tomb monuments. At the centre of the composition are John and Mary Towneley with their seven sons and seven daughters lined up behind them. The background is of two vines, emblems of fruitfulness; that on the right, from which hang white grapes shows, through a display of shields with arms, the descent of the Towneley family, while right vine on the right, which has white grapes, has shields showing the descent of the Wimbyshes. The two unite in the arms of Sir Richard Towneley and his wife Frances Wimbysh and then descend to their daughter and sole heiress Mary and her first cousin once removed, the lawyer John Towneley, who she married in 1557. 1 The original arrangement included another board hung over the lower part of the main painting which had an inscription settling out the pedigree of the family. 2 Thus far the imagery emphasizes the couple’s pride in their lineage, social status and success in continuing the family line. The religious aspect of the painting is the central focus, which shows the family kneeling either side of a double prayer desk bearing a prayer book with a phrase from the Lord’s prayer reading ‘FIAT VOLUNTAS TUA SICUT IN CAELO ET IN TERRA (Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven)’. Above is the object of their devotions: a crucifix above with spots of blood dripping from the image of Christ and a scroll above reading ‘VIRTUTE DECET NON SANGUINE NITI (It is fitting to rely on virtue not on blood)’. This was not the family motto, which was ‘Tenez le vraye (Keep the truth)’, but was a speech of the Carmelite friar, the blessed Baptist Spagnoli of Mantua (1447-1516). 3 In many respects this presents a most familiar image, but an incongruity lies in the costume of those shown; the picture was painted c. 1601, some fifty years after the completion of the Reformation in England. That this devotional imagery was exceptional at this date is illustrated by a comparison with a painting on canvas of 1615 now in the Society of Antiquaries of London which shows another family, that of Giles and Margery Smith, at prayer (Fig. 2). A prayer desk in front of the father stands on a chest fastened by metal straps and standing on tiny bracket feet, which can probably be interpreted as a coffin; on top of it is the skull and crossbones, a familiar symbol of death. The inscription on the side of the coffin reads: 1