The Green Man
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A harness ornament in gold and enamel. 13th century.
32. (a) Noyon (Oise). Cathedral
Roof boss in the Chapter House. 13th century.
(b) Noyon (Oise). Cathedral
Roof boss in the Chapter House. 13th century.
33. (a) Mainz Cathedral
Tympanum over the Market Portal. 1200-15.
Leaf masks with acanthus sprouting from the mouth and from the upper lip, or nostrils in the ornamental frame.
(b) One of the six leaf masks in the border.
34. (a) Worms. Cathedral
Tympanum (inside the north portal). 1200. (Bildarchiv Foto-Marburg. No. 20706.)
(b) Maria Laach. Abbey
Capital on portico (forecourt). circa. 1230.
Two leaf masks, almost in profile, confront each other and appear as one, in full face view.
35. Aschaffenburg. St. Peter and St. Alexander
Corbel carved by Baumeister Fingerhaut in 1200.
36. Gelnhausen. Marienkirche
Head formed mainly of leaves. circa 1235.
37. Barnberg. Cathedral
The Rider Statue. Leaf mask on console (on the right). Carved by the Master mason of Bamberg, circa 1237. (Foto-Limmer. Bamberg.)
38. Barn berg. Cathedral
Leaf mask. (Foto-Limmer. Bamberg.)
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39. Ebrach. Former Cistercian Abbey, now a prison church
Carvings on the portal. 13th century.
(a) Leaf mask on the keystone of the arch.
(b) Leaf mask on a boss.
40. Friedburg. Liebfrauenkirche
Tympanum over door leading to sacristy. circa 1290. (Bildarchiv Foto-Marburg. No. 9105.)
41. Mainz Altertumsmuseum
(a) Roof boss. Late 13th or early 14th century. (Bildarchiv Foto-Marburg. No. 13367.)
(b) Würzburg. Deutschhauskirche
Roof boss. circa 1290.
42. Much Marcle. Herefordshire. St Bartholomew
Capitals in the nave, carved circa 1230-40.
(a) Leaf mask with a squint: "stiff-leaf" ornament.
(b) Leaf mask with barely focused eyes. "Stiff-leaf" ornament.
43. (a) Wadenhoe, Northamptonshire. St. Mary
Corbel. 13th century.
Foliate head with one eye slanting. The mouth is shaped rather like a figure of eight.
(b) Grantham, Lincolnshire. St. Wulfram
Corbel on the north side of the church, and very weather-worn. 13th century.
A death's head with eyes that seem alive and rolling. The lipless, almost toothless mouth is shaped like a figure of eight, the two loops of the figure dosed by the remaining front teeth. Leaves grow through the gaps on either side.
44. (a) Ripon, Yorkshire. Cathedral
Corbel in the nave, 13th century.
Grim faced foliate head with a figure of eight mouth.
(b) Dorchester, Oxfordshire. Abbey
Foliate head supporting vaulting shaft over doorway in the south-east angle of the Lady Chapel. 13th century.
Vines grow out of the huge, figure of eight mouth pulled out and twisted into this grotesque shape by pain: it is an expression of human anguish.
45. Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Minster
Tympana in the Chapter House. Late 13th century. (The Tympana are numbered and the plants identified after Seward: see List of References, 55.)
(a) Tympanum 3: Buttercup (Ranunculus) or Cranes-bill (Geranium pusillum or possibly G. sanguineum). Two leaves growing out of the man's mouth and one on his head.
(b) Tympanum 5: Buttercup and Hops coming from the man's mouth.
(c) Tympanum 12: Buttercup. Two sprays coming from the man's mouth and one growing from his head. Two birds, one pecking a flower.
(d) Tympanum 13: A spray of Ivy coming out of the man's mouth. Two birds: one pecks the stem and the other carries a fledgling in its beak.
46. Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Minster.
Tympana in the Chapter House.
(a) Tympanum 14: Two sprays coming from the man's mouth, the one on the left resembles wild apple (Pyrus malus) or cherry (Prunus cerasus) or blackthorn (Prunus spinosa). The spray on the right is probably black bryony (Tanus communis) or bitter sweet (Solanum dulcamara) or convolvulus.
(b) Tympanum 22: Maple, with fruit, coming out of the man's mouth.
(c) Tympanum 26: Dragons with linked hawthorn tails. Although this decorative fantasy has no direct connection with the foliate heads represented at Southwell, it reminds us of twelfth century imagery where animal and vegetable forms grow out of each other and are freely interchangeable elements, and either or both, separately or mixed, may come out of the mouths or ears of demon heads. The little dragons, like the Green Men, are used to vary the foliage ornament of the thirty-six tympana.
(d) Tympanum 33: A young man's face peers narrow-eyed and frowning, through a bent-over spray of berried hawthorn which he pulls apart with his hands. The head is not, in this case, the source of the foliage but forms a centre for the design.
47. (a) Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Minster
Decoration above the abacus of capital (No. 31).
A hawthorn mask, corresponding to the Tête de Feuilles. The capital below is decorated with flowering hawthorn.
(b) Cadneig Lincolnshire. All Saints
Corbel. 13th century. Head with sprays of oak coming from the mouth.
(c) Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Minster
Corbel in the Chapter House.
Ivy coming from the mouth on the right, maple on the left.
48. (a) Noyon Cathedral (Chapter House)
Head with vines, and birds stealing the grapes. 13th century.
(b) Sutton Benger, Wiltshire. All Saints
The superb Green Man on the western respond is believed to date from the late 13th or early 14th century (Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, Wiltshire (1963), in the Buildings of England (series) Penguin Books, and personal communication), though it may have been worked on during the restorations of 1851. Two Green Men on the outside of the church are probably of this later date, and are carved "after the style" of the foliate head inside. The plant is hawthorn, and birds peck at the berries. Did the idea come from Noyon?
49. Exeter, Devon. Cathedral
Corbel on the north side of the choir: late 13th or early 14th century.
50. Exeter, Devon. Cathedral
(a) Roof boss in the Lady Chapel: early 14th century. Silverweed (Potentilla anserina) or Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) grows out of a figure of eight mouth with very irregular teeth.
(b) Roof boss in Retrochoir, early 14th century.
Two heads with Mugwort or Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium).
51. (a) Halse, Somerset. St. James
Roundel, circa 1300, mounted on the north wall, inside the church. Oak leaves come from the nostrils, and another spray grows upwards from the bridge of the nose.
(b) Claypole, Lincolnshire. St. Peter
Capital, circa 1325.
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52. Harpswell, Lincolnshire, St. Chad
(a) Effigy of William Harrington, rector. 1350.
(b) Foliate head at the base of the memorial. Large flat leaves grow from the nose and spread over the cheeks, and smaller leaves grow on the forehead.
53. Winchester, Hampshire Cathedral
Spandrel in Choir Stalls. 1308-10.
54. Winchester, Hampshire Cathedral
Spandrel in Choir Stalls. 1308-10.
55. (a) Beverley, Yorkshire Minster
Capital in the nave. 1308-49.
(b) Lichfield, Staffordshire. Cathedral
Capital. 1340.
This Green Man, an English "Tête de Feuilles", is reputed to be a "portrait" of the Kings Master Builder, William de Ramessey.
56. Leckharnpstead, Buckinghamshire. St. Mary the Virgin
Panel on the font. 14th century.
A spray of oak leaves comes from the mouth of a man's head which is smaller that the leaves and only a littl
e larger than the clusters of acorns.
57. Ely, Cambridgeshire Cathedral
Roof bosses in the Lady Chapel. 1335-53.
C. J. P. Cave (see List of References, 3) tells us that when he photographed these roof bosses and discovered faces under the foliage they reminded him of the Jack in the Green he had seen as a boy, peeping through his covering of leaves. The use of the telescopic lens (necessary to photograph these bosses which are some 70 feet high) tends to distort and "flatten" the perspective: the faces are actually more deeply withdrawn behind the foliage that they appear in the photo-graphs, but the photographs allow us to see the expression of the faces more clearly and reveal that most of these Green Men are far from amiable characters.
(a) The eyes are the only dearly visible feature of this face; the rest are hidden in the shadows of the leaves which all rise out of the mouth.
(b) One leaf comes from the mouth but most of the foliage develops from the bulbous nose.
58. Ely Cathedral Lady Chapel
(a) The arrangement of leaves is the same as in Plate 57 (b), but more of the face is exposed.
(b) Leaves grow from the ears and from the mouth.
59. Ely Cathedral Lady Chapel
(a) A Tête de Feuilles with almost feminine features.
(b) Leaves veil, but do not conceal, the diabolical face of this Green Man whose vicious teeth bite on the thick branches coming out of the mouth.
60. Ely Cathedral Lady Chapel
(a) The most conspicuous feature of this demon (with his face painted green) is his huge tongue (painted red). Leaves grow out of his mouth and ears.
(b) The leaves are disposed peripherally: one pokes out through a gap in the teeth.
61. Marburg an der Lahn. Elisabethkirche
Rood Screen. ? circa 1349.
There are at least a dozen Green Men on this leafy rood screen; clustered like flowers at the bases of the columns supporting the arch, and round the capital on the left. (Bildarchiv Foto-Marburg. No. 77384.)
62. Marburg. Rood Screen
(a) The complete screen. (Bildarchiv Foto-Marburg. No. 77383.)
(b) One of the Green Men. (Bildarchiv Foto-Marburg. No. 77385.)
63. Weston Longville (Norfolk). All Saints
Ornament of the sedilia. 14th century.
(a) Face with tongue sticking out. Branches grow out of his head, just above the ears, like horns.
(b) Face with branches coming out of the mouth.
(c) Little Man carrying sprays of oak and vine.
64. Bristol St. Mary Redcliffe
(a) Corbel. 14th century. The frown lines of this agreeable face develop as the veins of the leaves which grow from his brows.
(b) Gilded roof boss. 14th century. A smiling Green Man.
65. (a) Bristol. St Mary Redcliffe 14th century stained glass in a window (under the Tower) reconstructed in the 19th century.
Only one eye appears: the other is obliterated by the leading. The large ears suggest that this Green Man is an imp or a demon, and the crown might well allude to the realm of Satan (see Plate 84 (a) and (b)).
(b) Southwell, Nottinghamshire Minster
Misericord. 14th century.
66. Nantwich, Cheshire. St. Mary
(a) Stained glass. 14th century. One of the original lights remaining in a window, mostly restored in the 19th century, in the present vestry (formerly the Lady Chapel). The medieval glass at Nantwich was probably made by the Cistercians at Abbey Vale Royal in Delamere Forest.
The mouth and small tongue of this frowning Green Man are feline, but the nose, eyes and ears are human. The pupils of the eyes converge in a squint.
(b) Sandstone head carved above the pillar of the arch of the tower, facing north. 14th century.
67. (a) Coventry, Warwickshire Holy Trinity
Misericord. Late 14th or early 15th century.
(b) Loversall, Yorkshire. St. Katherine
Misericord. Late 14th or early 15th century.
68. Lincoln Cathedral
(a) Misericord. Late 14th century.
(b) Arm rest in choir stalls. Late 14th century.
69. Bamberg. Cathedral
Foliate head in the choir stalls. Late 14th century. (Bildarchiv Foto-Marburg. No. 6464.)
70. (a) Chester Cathedral
Misericord. 1390.
Demonic Green Man.
(b) Marburg an der Lahn. Universitätsmuseum
Roof boss. 2nd half of the 14th century. (Bildarchiv Foto-Marburg. No. 140144.)
71. South Tawton, Devon. St. Andrew
Roof bosses. 14th or 15th century.
(a) A Tête de Feuilles whose expression suggests a state of drunken stupor. A Green Man with a hang-over?
(b) The branches twist like worms round the head of this moribund Green Man. The face wastes away but the grapes are swelling.
72. South Tawton, Devon. St Andrew
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Roof bosses. 14th or 15th century.
(a) The tongue develops as an offshoot of the main stem coming out of the mouth.
(b) Leaves grow from the brows, nostrils and mouth of the wretched head.
73. Sampford Courtenay, Devon. St. Andrew
Roof bosses. 14th or 15th century.
(a) A beautifully carved foliate head. The branches force the teeth apart but the Green Man suffers patiently.
(b) The mouth is stretched by the leaves pulling out the corners and a formidable set of teeth is exposed.
74. (a) Sampford Courtenay, Devon. St. Andrew
Roof boss. 14th or 15th century.
A Green Man with a beard like a fish tail and horribly bulging eyes.