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
St. Martha slew the Dragon Tarasque at Aix-la-chapelle, but that name is
derived from _tarir_, to drain. St. Keyne slew the Cornish Dragon, and, to
be brief, at least twelve other worthies slew dragons, and doubtless for
their respective districts supplied the place of the older myth. Among
these, St. George is noteworthy. He is said to have been born at Lydda, in
Syria, where his legend awaited the Crusaders, who took him as their
patron, bringing him to the west, as the last Christian adoption of a
sun-myth idea, to become the patron saint of England. A figure of St.
George was a private badge of English kings till the time of the Stuarts.
On the old English angel the combat is between St. Michael and the Dragon,
and though St. George is generally shewn mounted, as was also sometimes
Horus, the Egyptian deity, he is sometimes represented on foot, like St.
Michael. The Dragon is generally the same in the two cases, being the
Wyvern or two-legged variety.
Another form of dragon is drake. Certain forms of cannon were called both
dragons and drakes. Sometimes the dragon is found termed the Linden-worm,
or Lind-drake, in places as widely sundered as Scotland and Germany. It is
said this is on account of the dragon dwelling under the linden, a sacred
tree, but this is probably only, as yet, half explained.
Perhaps through all time the sun-myth was accompanied by a constant
feeling that good and evil were symbolised by the alternation of season.
It is to be expected that the feeling would increase and solidify upon the
advent of Christianity, for the periodic dragon of heathendom was become
the permanent enemy of man, the Devil. The frequent combats between men
(and other animals) and the dragons, met among church grotesques, though
their models, far remote in antiquity, were representations of sun-myths,
would be carved and read as the ever-continuing fight between good and
evil. That, however, it is reasonable to see in these Dragon sculptures
direct representatives of the ancient cult, we know from a fact of date.
The festival of Horus, the Egyptian deity, was the 23rd of April. That is
the date of St. George's Day.
Less than the foregoing would scarcely be sufficient to explain the
frequency and significance of the Dragon forms which crowd our subject.
During the three Rogation days, which took the place of the Roman
processional festivals of the Ambarvalia and Cerealia, the Dragon was
carried as a symbol both in England and on the continent. When the Mystery
pageantry of Norwich was swept away, an exception was made in favour of
the Dragon, who, it was ordained, "should come forth and shew himself as
of old."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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