Exhibitionist With Fishes

The west front of Rochester cathedral is Romanesque. Beautiful arcading, beautiful diaper work.



I called Ailz over.

"See that figure in the central lunette. I think it's a Sheela-na-gig. What do you think?" She thought it was too. But it was a long way off the ground and we couldn't be sure of the details.

When I got home I blew up the image and it became rather more mysterious.



I think we can agree that it's an exhibitionist- that's to say- a grotesque figure displaying "those parts that men delight to see". They can be either male or female- and in this instance someone has taken a hammer to the crucial area so we can't be sure. I imagine the vandalism was deliberate- and probably took place in the 19th century- when people were more irked by public indecency than at any time before or since. The face is well-weathered but I rather think I can see a big moustache and a little beard, so it's probably male. But the really odd thing is it has a large fish in either hand.

Is it a merman? A river god?

Rochester sits on the banks of the river Medway so that last suggestion is the one I'm going for...

My Sister's Suggestion

My sister looked at my pic of the exhibitionist in the last post and suggested that what I'm taking to be a beard could be a tongue- in which case the figure's sex becomes indeterminate. I could smack the bloody Victorian who took his bloody hammer to the genitals.

A stuck out tongue plus fish- that's really rude!

Yet More Speculation

For yet more speculation on the Rochester figure take a look at this page in the Sheela na gig Project's website where it's compared with carvings of jugglers elsewhere in Rochester cathedral and one of a mermaid holding two fish in a church in France. These guys are the experts and- basically- they don't know any more than I do. They do however confirm my sister's observation that the figure is sticking its tongue out.

Their picture is a little clearer than mine. Bastards!