Medieval Faces
Dec. 18th, 2021 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloFirst thing I do when I enter a church is march to the west end and take a general survey of the building- assess its age, style, atmosphere. After that I go looking for special features: monuments, stained glass, oddities.
And after that I search for faces.
Faces?
Yes. Some churches are full of them. As often as not they turn up in the form of corbels- projecting lumps of masonry designed to support and tidily round off arches, roof beams and such like structures. Often they're grotesque. Sometimes you suspect they may be portraits. The best ones are medieval. The Victorians carved them too but their efforts tend towards the generic- noble kings, beauteous queens, reverend bishops.
Here are three from a church I popped into this afternoon- St John the Baptist, Wittersham. I'm not very clever with dates (because time's an illusion, right?) but I'll guess at 14th century. They're sufficiently different for one to suppose they may be the work of different artists- though the broadness of the noses suggests they all studied in the same school. The first is a character study- masculine, forceful, humourous, the second is an amusing caricature and the third is such a striking combination of the spiritual and the sensual that I think the mason must have been in a little in love with his creation...
And after that I search for faces.
Faces?
Yes. Some churches are full of them. As often as not they turn up in the form of corbels- projecting lumps of masonry designed to support and tidily round off arches, roof beams and such like structures. Often they're grotesque. Sometimes you suspect they may be portraits. The best ones are medieval. The Victorians carved them too but their efforts tend towards the generic- noble kings, beauteous queens, reverend bishops.
Here are three from a church I popped into this afternoon- St John the Baptist, Wittersham. I'm not very clever with dates (because time's an illusion, right?) but I'll guess at 14th century. They're sufficiently different for one to suppose they may be the work of different artists- though the broadness of the noses suggests they all studied in the same school. The first is a character study- masculine, forceful, humourous, the second is an amusing caricature and the third is such a striking combination of the spiritual and the sensual that I think the mason must have been in a little in love with his creation...
