Artist: Cecil Doughty (biography)
Medium: Gouache on Board
Size: 8" x 10" (200mm x 250mm)
Date: 1949
Signature: Signed by artist bottom left

This is the Signed unique original Gouache painting by Cecil Doughty.

John Wycliffe 1325 - 31 December 1384 was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, Biblical translator, reformer, and seminary professor at Oxford. He was an influential dissident within the Roman Catholic priesthood during the 14th century.

Wycliffe attacked the privileged status of the clergy, which was central to their powerful role in England.

In this image, The Council of Constance declares Wycliffe a heretic, and bans his writings, effectively excommunicating him and thereby making him a forerunner of Protestantism. The Council decreed that Wycliffe's works should be burned and his remains removed from consecrated ground. This order, confirmed by Pope Martin V, was carried out in 1428. Wycliffe's corpse was exhumed and burned and the ashes cast into the River Swift, which flows through Lutterworth.

Cecil Doughty captures the emotion of this trial scene with his painting style beautifully. Signed 1949, this appears to be an earlier work by the artist, and the actual tone of the paint seems more luminescent than much of his other work which was accomplished using pen and ink.