Here - The Green Man of Cercles

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The Green Man of Cercles
A GREEN MAN VARIANT? :
“BEASTS EMERGING from THE MOUTH or EARS – and SIRENS”
Here are some juxtaposed images of masks with pairs of horns, or sometimes snakes,
emerging from their mouths or ears. In most cases, these terminate in the heads of snakes,
lions or other beasts.
Fig 1 : Bridge Sollars, Herefordshire
Sketch by Tina Negus
See also, another artefact which shows horns (coming from the nostrils in this case) Fig 5 on
http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/the_green_man_in_benin.pdf
in the surprising context of an ivory from Benin, probably of the Baroque period :
Fig 2 : Benin ivory decoration
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Fig 3: from Contrée near Aulnay in the Saintonge
These twin serpents appear to have emerged from the man’s
ears. They are whorled like the horns of Bridge Sollars
Fig 4 : from Königslutter, Germany
This sculpture is by Maestro Niccolo,
who worked at the Sacra di San Michele, near Turin, and in the region of Verona,
where he has an impressive body of work including a fine Green Man. Is the
sculpture here the source of influence for Green Men and Green Man variants at
Gernrode, Goslar, Magdeburg and other German cathedrals? See supplement, at the
end of this article.
Fig 5 : Baltrusaitis's sketch of a capital from Tournus
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Fig 6 : another capital from Tournus
The heads on this capital are harbouring avian creatures with reptilian tails and mammalian
heads with little ears. The creatures seem to be whispering in the mens’ ears while their tails
disappear into the mens’ mouths.
Fig 7 : Detail of a Snake Horn mask from Kilpeck
Church, Herefordshire
Unsurprisingly, this is the closest to my first image, from the same area. The style of the
“Herefordshire School” is known as “Anglo-Normand” in France. It is possible that the
craftsmen who worked here came from Normandy with their masters, so the roots of their
cultural heritage might be traced to the art of the Vikings. This is often thought to be the
case at Kilpeck.
Are these masks blowing on the horns to announce a message?
Here is a detail of Auster, the South Wind, from the "tapestry" in Gerona Cathedral.
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Might there be a link between a Hellenic
image that gave rise to this double
hornblower and the sculptured ones
above?
Fig 8 : Auster, the South Wind, Gerona Cathedral Treasury
Green Men are often described as “uttering” foliage; are these hornblowers “heralding” the
onset of Spring or Renewal?
Alternatively, are these negative images, images of sin? Are the horns a transformation of
the tongue, which has become forked, like a serpent’s? Do the images represent the sin of
calumny? Where the heads on the horns swivel inwards to whisper into the man’s ears, are
they offering wicked information or advice?
Fig 9 : Agen Cathedral of St Caprais
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This capital in the Cathedral of St Caprais at Agen shows two men clothed in green, each
holding a pair of horns in his mouth. On each side, the men are flanked by pairs of identical
birds with long, snaky tails that curve round to enter the clothing of the men at the level of
their knees. Visually, this provides mirror images at the lower level to the pairs of horns at
the upper level. Meanwhile, the birds have beaks wide open and seem to be shrieking in the
mens’ ears. The men have their arms round the necks of the birds; their hands support the
widest part of the horns. The message may be that man’s bestial instincts (represented by
the birds) afflict their phallic regions giving rise to lustful thoughts and thence evil
propositions which they now proclaim, shamelessly.
Snakes, which represented wisdom and renewal in Classical times became despised and
feared as diabolical agents if not Satan himself in the Christian period. Thus, the ancient
image of snakes or lions whispering good counsel which we see depicted on artefacts from
the Middle East onwards may have changed their meaning over the millennia to signify the
exact opposite, a situation that is mirrored in the way the “Femme aux Serpentes” image
changed from Good Goddess to Bad Woman.
In the abbey church of St-Chef in the Dauphiné, there is a fresco where snakes emerge from
the mouth and fish from the ears of a diabolical head :
Fig 10 : Head with emerging beasts from the intrados to the Chapel of St-Theudère in the
abbey church of St-Chef.
Here is the larger picture, showing the mask in its context :
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Fig 11 : Head with emerging beasts and sirens from the abbey church of St-Chef.
Mermaids are joining the battle, threatening the cynocephalic serpents with spears. Those
strange, cup-like objects can now be assumed to be shells. Other elements complete the
scene of life under the sea such as the griffin or senmurv-like fish and the squid that
resembles the helmeted head of a warrior - (I have turned this picture on its side):
Fig 12 : detail of sea monster, fish and squid
Fig 13 : Fresco of marine life on the intrados of the chapel of St Theudère
Suzanne Charlet, from whose web site - http://perso.orange.fr/fresques-romanes/
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I have borrowed these images – says,
“Sea, fishes and shells relate back to Genesis, the first book of the Bible, and to the moment of THE
CREATION. After creating light on the first day, on the second day God “made the firmament and divided
the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament” (Genesis I.7),
and on the fifth day “He peopled these waters with living, swimming creatures.” (Genesis I.20).
But this marine world is worrying. A great face in the middle with a slippery look and a smile full of teeth
is spitting out horned snakes while fishes come out of its ears; symmetrically disposed monsters are
fighting, while two armed sirens seem not to know where to place the lances with which they are attacking
the horned snakes, as behind them others are rearing up, with wings, claws and horns, even pushing out a
menacing three-pronged tongue; a jellyfish is hiding the peculiar face of a helmeted warrior. As regards the
siren at the foot of the intrados, on the right, (the best preserved) she is fully occupied with her double tail
terminating with the heads of the dragons from which she is defending herself by pushing them firmly aside.
Since Eve, snakes and all crawling creatures are most often symbols of EVIL, and sirens in medieval
iconography generally represent LUST. In this violent universe dominated by the false bonhomie of the
central mask, how are we not to see an image of the world given over to Evil and the Devil since the Fall ?
Finally, behind the intrados there is painted a large figure of Christ in majesty, enriching it in a new way by
reference to the Apocalypse (VI.1), the final book of the Bible; “Before the throne (of God) there is like a
sea of crystal”. This crystal sea, represented similarly in numerous manuscripts, is here at the entrance like
a frontier to be crossed in order to approach the throne of God and to move into the divine universe of which
the Church consists.
This marine setting therefore represents at the same time the upper and the lower waters of the firmament.”
Mermaids or sirens appear very frequently on Romanesque capitals and corbels, and
symbolise Luxuria, or sinful woman like this one from Marignac in the Saintonge.
Fig 14: Siren and fish on capital at Marignac
As so often happens, the source of some of these images can be traced to classical models
and thence to MS, which being both portable and capable of duplication, were widely
disseminated.
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Here is a Coptic Venus with sirens of the VI century :
Fig 15: Venus and Sirens, Coptic Egypt, VIc, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Venus’s alluring gesture of spreading out her hair is much repeated on Romanesque “Images
of Lust”. Sirens sometimes have a single fish tail, more like our idea of mermaids,
sometimes a forked tail like this typical siren from Mosnac in the Saintonge :
Fig 16: Siren on corbel from Mosnac in the Saintonge
The original logo for Starbuck’s coffee is another example :
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Fig 17: Siren on old Starbucks coffee logo
(Starbucks have subsequently Bowdlerised their image).
Sometimes the siren not only clutches her tails but finds that they have turned into menacing
beasts which she has to control, as illustrated in the Chapel of St Theudère :
Fig 18 : Siren controlling the beasts on her tails, from the abbey church of St-Chef.
A surprise to me was this image from the Mochica mural in the “Temple of the Moon”,
Peru. (See, http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/the_green_man_in_benin.pdf )
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Fig 19 : Mochica mural in the “Temple of the Moon”, Peru
This illustration is taken from a travel blog, “Lou in Peru”, which you can see in its entirety
here: http://louperu.blogspot.com/
Fig 20 : Benin ivory decoration on a vase
Another surprising ivory from Benin, probably of the Baroque period. For a description of
this artefact, see Figs 6 & 7 on:
http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/the_green_man_in_benin.pdf
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This is surely a metaphor for female lust – a sin which Woman has constantly to struggle to
control! However, there are numerous sculptures of men in this predicament, too.
Fig 21 : Snake Man of Matha St Hérie, Saintonge
The origin of this image may be the Anguipède : the eel-legged man, an example of which
may be seen in the Musée Bargoin, Clermont Ferrand :
Fig 22 : Anguipède and Rider, Musée Bargoin, Clermont Ferrand
Here is another view of the same group :
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Fig 23 : Anguipède and Rider, Musée Bargoin, Clermont Ferrand
and here are the notices that go with it :
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It is interesting to note that seven similar groups have been found in the Puy de Dôme alone,
although they are apparently more common in Alsace, Eastern Gaul and the Rhine area.
Presumably there are representations of Anguipèdes without riders oppressing them too,
though no mention of that is made in the museum.
The trail of the Anguipède is more ancient than the Gallo-Roman religion, however. It can
be traced back to the Tritons, a race of marine giants, sons of Poseidon or Neptune.
Here are some Triton images in sculpture from the 2nd c BC to the second c AD:
Fig 24 :
Wedding of Amphitrite and Poseidon, Munich, Glyptotek, 2nd c BC, attributed by Pliny to Scopas
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Fig 25 :
Tritons on the Gigantomachy (Battle of Men & Giants), Istanbul, Archeological Museum
Ist century, from Aphrodisias
Fig 26 :
Triton on the Gigantomachy (Battle of Men & Giants), Munich, Glyptotek
2nd century, from Pergamon
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Fig 27 :
Triton on the Gigantomachy (Battle of Men & Giants),
Berlin, Pergamon Museum, 2nd century, from Pergamon
Depictions of Tritons are also found on Greek pottery and Roman mosaic.
Another variety of Sirens with animal legs is the Mixoparthenos from the Black Sea region,
whose body ends in twin snakes. The name means "half-maiden" and is the surname of the
Furies. She mated with Hercules to produce three sons; the youngest became the founder
of the Scythian nation. (Herodotus books 4-5)
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Fig 28 : Siren and fish, St Georges d’Agouts, Saintonge
Here the fish seems to be whispering in the siren’s right ear rather than emerging from it; on
the other side, she is clutching her forked tail which is, similarly, nearly in her left ear.
There is a very interesting piece of sculpture on the left of the façade of Rochester Cathedral
which is in three parts or tympani :
Fig 29 : Photographs of Rochester Cathedral by Liz Simmons
-
Two birds & chalice on the left,
An image of lust seated like a mermaid holding a fish in one ear and with a large
tongue sticking out. The creature with its mouth to the other ear might be a quadruped
monster.
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Fig 30 : The third arc shows a dragon-like monster preening its tail.
The three sections are linked by lion masks with manes like foliage coming from their
mouths; and we are told that there are twenty-three Green Men inside Rochester Cathedral.
I presume the figure in the middle is an emasculated male (he has no breasts or hair) lusting
(tongue sticking out) deaf to Good Counsel and obsessed by sex (represented by the fish in
his ears).
There is also a good photo and article here :
http://www.sheelanagig.org/index.html#http://www.sheelanagig.org/SheelaRochester.htm
The article refers us to Cunault between Angers and Chinon,
Fig 31 : Cunault, Siren and fishermen
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where a siren with a fish in each hand offers one to some fishermen in a boat. There is
another siren and fish sculpted on a metope on the tower at Cunault :
Fig 32 : Cunault, Siren and fish
The article also refers us to :
http://www.norman-world.com/angleterre/cultures/GB_FR/6/pic6-3e.htm showing a capital
from the crypt at Canterbury Cathedral :
Fig 33 : Canterbury Cathedral, male acrobats with fish and bowl
A male acrobat on the shoulders of another, holds a fish in his right hand and a bowl in his
left.
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Fig 34: Stow Longa, Hunts, Siren on tympanum over priest’s door
The Siren’s stance here reminds me of the one at St Georges d’Agout. Her companion
creatures might be a dog and cat. These may be three sinful creatures in an unholy trinity.
But I see that others fancy the "cat" is the Agnus Dei! (See also, my Note & Query, “Green
Cats and Dogs”.
In classical mythology, sirens were a known danger to sailors, luring them to their doom
with their enchanting songs, flowing hair and bare bosoms. Odysseus managed to enjoy
their charm from a distance while protecting himself by being chained to the mast. His
sailors had to row with their ears plugged with wax.
Sirens sometimes sat on rocks with a mirror in one hand, grooming themselves to attract
attention. The origin of the most “luxuriant” sirens may be Venus herself.
In the village of Langon in Brittany, there exists a chapel dedicated to St Venus, which
retains a Gallo-Roman marine fresco which once decorated a private bathroom :
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Fig 35: Venus and fish on a marine fresco from the Chapel of Sainte Agathe, Langon
The curved wall of the 2nd century bath house was used by early Christians as an apse for the
little chapel but it remained, “the Chapel of St Venus” until the 18th century when it was rededicated to St Agathe.
See the article : http://www.ville-langon.fr/eglise_st_pierre.htm, then click on “La Chapelle
St-Agathe”.
To return to beast spewers, one is reminded of myths and folk tales in which the good are
blessed by having gold coins or others valuable commodities emerge from their mouths
while the wicked are punished by finding that they spew venomous toads or serpents. The
former is a kind of Midas’s touch, though that story points the moral that blessings can be
mixed and have to be used with care. A similarly ambiguous story is in the brother Grimm’s
collection, “Tischlein deck dich”, in which an ass showers gold coins from its bottom.
Compare that fanciful idea to the Green Bottom of Aulnay :
Fig 36: “Green Bottom” of St Pierre d’Aulnay
An early representation of a mermaid goddess :
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Fig 37: Derketo, Phoenician fish-tailed goddess
The 2nd century writer, Lucian of Samosata, in De Dea Syria, (the Syrian Goddess)
acknowledges that at one time a paramount Goddess was worshipped in regions of the
Ancient Near East and goes into details of the practices of her devotees. In “The White
Goddess”, Robert Graves cited it as one of the few actual accounts of ancient Goddessworship.
Lucian recounts his personal observations of the worship of the Goddess Atargatis (a form of
Isthar or Astarte) at the temple of Hierapolis, in what is today Turkey.
Concerning the Syrian Goddess by Lucian of Samosata
I saw the likeness of Derketo in Phoenicia, a strange marvel. It is woman for half its length,
but the other half, from thighs to feet, stretched out in a fish's tail. But the image in the Holy
City is entirely a woman, and the grounds for their account are not very clear. They consider
fishes to be sacred, and they never eat them; and though they eat all other fowls, they do not
eat the dove, for she is holy, so they believe.
I conclude as I began, with some “Green Man Variant” sculptures where reptiles from the
mouth become whisperers in ears :
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Fig 38 : Dore l’église, Auvergne, capital of man with reptiles’ tails held in his mouth, their
heads whispering in his ears
Fig 39 : Chalais, Vienne, head with snake tails held in the mouth – and bottom-shower
The snakes are coiled neatly with their heads tending towards ear-whispering mode. The
glum-looking head on the right is having no part in it, while the bottom-shower on the right
of the heads on the capital may be expressing his feeling by his posture!
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Fig 40: Human-headed monsters held in the mouth, capital by the entrance to the church at
Chatillon sur Indre, Berry
Not far away, at the Abbey of Fontgombault, another head holds two birds in its mouth :
Fig 41: birds held in the mouth, Abbey of Fontgombault, Berry
If birds are heavenly messengers, bringing wisdom and Good Counsel, this head may be
seen as a sinner, refusing their message by gobbling them up!
While at Matha Marestay, Gironde, there is a head that has two rather worn creatures in its
mouth which may be birds, but I think they look rather like human-headed senmurvs. To me
there is something rather solipsistic about these images : a denial of anything outside the
head of the selfish sinner and – above all – disobedience regarding the authority of the
Church. So the creature in the mouth may be the trapped soul of the head, especially when
the creature is a bird, or it may be a gross reflection of the sinner in an even more bestial
form.
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Fig 42: Matha Marestay, Gironde, a head holding the tails of two creatures
In the church at Pebrac, beyond Chanteuges in the Auvergne, there is a capital where heads
are holding snakes by the tail, whose reptilian heads are whispering in their ears.
Fig 43: Pebrac, Auvergne, heads holding the tails of two snakes
While at Candes St Martin near Chinon we have an unusual example of a Green Man who
spews both foliage and the tail of a reptile that whispers in his ear, at the same time!
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Fig 44: Candes St Martin Green Man and whispering reptile
Is it fanciful to conclude that this genre represents not only The Blasphemer or One who
heeds Bad Counsel but actually depicts the person who has excommunicated himself by
allowing these sins of mouth and ear to form a closed circuit, locking the sinner in his own
world, apart from the Good who speak and hear no evil?
Fig 45: San Prospero mosaic fragment, devil head with dragon horns, 1160, Musei Civici,
Reggio Emilia
Although this fragment is typical of Northern Italian mosaics of the Romanesque period, the
design is surely inspired by one of the many Roman mosaics representing Okeanos such as
this one from Cividale:
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Fig 46: Okeanos mosaic fragment, Cividale di Friuli, Museo Civico
or this one from Gaziantep Museum, Anatolia:
Fig 47: Okeanos and Tethys mosaic fragment, Gaziantep Museum, Anatolia
SUPPLEMENT: PICTURES OF GREEN MEN, BEASTS AND VARIANTS FROM GERMANY
Here is Fig 4, a Green Man variant head from Königslutter again:
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As indicated at the beginning of this article, this sculpture is the work of Maestro Niccolo of
the Verona region, who worked extensively in this part of Germany. This sculpture (and
indeed, all the examples given) should not be considered in isolation, but in the context of
other work surrounding it. The close connection between what I have called a “Green Man
Variant” and the original Green Man (or Green Beast) is underlined at Königslutter by the
nature of Niccolo’s other sculptures here:
Fig 1: Königslutter, sculptures on the exterior walls of the Cathedral lent by
http://www.raymond-faure.com/Koenigslutter/koenigslutter-jagdfries-2.html
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The photographs below are taken from Mathias Wenger’s site, “Atemgeburt”,
http://www.derhain.de/MittelalterProjekt/Atemgeburt/Atemgeburt.html
Figs 2 – 13 are from Gernrode Abbey:
28
29
This is the last picture in the Gernrode series
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Fig 14: Goslar Cathedral, first of 7 pictures from Goslar
pictures from Goslar
Fig 16: Siren & two GM from Goslar’s Jakob Kirche
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Fig 15: Goslar Cathedral, second of 7
Fig 17: Goslar, Neuwerk Kirche
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Fig 21: first of 8 pictures from Magdeburg Cathedral
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Fig 28: the last two pictures are from Magdeburg Cathedral Cloister
(To be continued)
Julianna Lees – Montagrier 2012
*see BIBLIOGRAPHY : ‘Formations, Déformations, la stylistique ornementale dans la
sculpture Romane’ by Jorge Baltrusaitis, Flammarion, paperback, 1986
See also, Notes & Queries on “Green Men and Sirens at St Michel d’Aiguilhe”
http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/green_men_and_sirens.pdf
and “Are Harpies Sirens?”
http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/are_harpies_sirens.pdf
and my article, “From Roman to Romanesque”
http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/from_roman_to_romanesque.pdf
Acknowledgements/links :
Professor Nurith Kenaan-Kedar, the title of whose doctoral thesis sparked off my interest in
the Abbey of Saint-Chef,
http://www.ville-langon.fr/eglise_st_pierre.htm, then click on “La Chapelle St-Agathe”.
http://www.rochestercathedral.org to see more pictures of the sculptures at Rochester
Cathedral
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/tsg/index.htm for article on Derketo
34
Peter Hubert, who took the photographs of sculptures in the Saintonge and sent me the photo
from San Prospero
Suzanne Charlet, from whose web site - http://perso.orange.fr/fresques-romanes/ I have
quoted extensively. NB – the photographs are by Christian Guyot, translation by Robin Lees
Raymond Faure, for his photos of sculptures by Maestro Niccolo at Königslutter,Cathedral
http://www.raymond-faure.com/Koenigslutter/koenigslutter-jagdfries-2.html
Mathias Wenger, http://www.derhain.de/MittelalterProjekt/Atemgeburt/Atemgeburt.html
who has the photos of Green Men at other German Cathedrals
35

Here - The Green Man of Cercles

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