The Grotesque in Church ArtWildridge, T. Tindall (Thomas Tindall)
History
The Grotesque in Church Art
Wildridge, T. Tindall (Thomas Tindall)
Christian art and symbolism; Church decoration and ornament; Grotesque
The cat is not a very frequent subject. At Sherborne she is shewn hanged
by mice, one of the retributive pieces which point to a confidence in the
existence of something called justice, not always self-evident in the
olden-time. Rats and mice are the emblem of St. Gertrude. The dog had a
higher place in ancient estimation than his mention in literature would
warrant; the fact that among the Romans he was the emblem of the Lares,
the household gods, is a weighty testimonial to that effect, while the
Egyptians had a city named after and devoted to the dog.
Among the pre-existing symbols seized by the Christians, the Egyptian
Cross and Druidical Tau must not be overlooked. It is found on the
capitals of pillars at Canterbury and other places; the example given in
the initial on page 34 is perhaps the latest example in English Gothic.
Its admission as a grotesque is due to its, perhaps merely accidental, use
as a mask as noted in the chapter on "Masks and Faces."
The sinuous course of the sun among the constellations is mentioned in
literature as far back as Euripides as an explanation of the presence of
the dragon in archaic systems of mythology. This may have been the origin
of the figure. Yet in addition to that there always seems to have been the
recognition of an evil principle, of which by a change of meaning, the
dragonic or serpentine star-path of the sun was made the personification
or symbol. According to Pausanius the "dragon" of the Greeks was only a
large snake.
It might not be impossible to collect several hundreds of names by which
the deistic character of the sun has been expressed by various peoples;
and the same applies, though in a less degree, to the Darkness, Storm,
Cold, and Wet, which are taken as his antithesis. One of the oldest of
these Dragon-names is Typhon, which is met in Egyptian mythology. Typhon
is said to be the Chinese _Tai-fun_, the hot wind, and, if this be so,
doubtless the adverse principle was taken to be the spirit of the desert
which ever seeks to embrace Egypt in its arid arms. The symbol of Typhon
was the crocodile, and doubtless the dragon form thus largely rose. Ráhu,
an evil deity in Hindoo mythology, though generally called a dragon, is
sometimes met represented as a crocodile, and his numerous progeny are
styled crocodiles. The constellation called by the Japanese the crocodile
is that known to us as the dragon. Can it be that in the universal dragon
we have a chronicle of our race's dim recollection of some survival of the
terrible Jurassic reptiles, and hence of their period?
But the myth has ever one ending; the power of the evil one is destroyed
for a time by the coming of the sun-god, though eventually the evil
triumphs, that is dearth recurs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account