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
At Christchurch, Hampshire, we see the Fox on a seat-elbow, in a pulpit of
good design, and near him, on a stool, the Cock; it appears in the
initial of this article.
At Worcester, a scapularied Fox is kneeling before a small table or altar,
laying his hand with an affectation of reverence upon--a sheep's head.
This is one of the side carvings to the misericorde of the three mowers,
considered under the head of "Trinities."
[Illustration: EPISCOPAL HYPOCRISY, BOSTON.]
The Fox seizing the Hen, at Windsor, reminds of the Fable, yet in so many
other instances it is the Cock who is the prey. Still further removing the
carvings out of the sphere of the Fable is a carving at Chicester of the
Fox playing the harp to a goose, while an ape dances; and another at St.
George's, Windsor, in which it is an ape who wears the stole, and is
engaged in the laying on of hands. In the Fable the Fox teaches the Hare
the Creed, yet in a carving at Manchester it is his two young cubs whom
he is teaching from a book.
The Fox in the Shell of Salvation, artfully discoursing on the merits of a
bottle of holy water, as drawn on page 58, may be considered a Preaching
Fox.
There is at Nantwich a carving which, unlike any of those already noticed,
is closely illustrative of an incident of the epic. It represents the
story told to Nouvel's court by the widower Crow. He and his wife, in
travelling through the country, came across what they thought was the dead
body of Reynard on the heath. He was stiff, his tongue protruded, his eyes
were inverted. They lamented his unhappy fate, and "course so early run."
The lady approached his chin, not, indeed, with any idea of commencing a
meal; far from that, it was to ascertain if perchance any signs of life
remained, when--snap! Her head was off! The Crow himself had the
melancholy luck to fly to a tree, there to sit and watch his wife eaten
up. In the carving we have the crows first coming upon the sight of the
counterfeit carrion as it lies near a rabbit warren. To shew how perfect
is Reynard's semblance of death, the rear portions of two rabbits are to
be seen as they hurry into their holes on the approach of the crows, the
proximity of the Fox not having previously alarmed them.
The side figures have no simultaneous connection with the central
composition, being merely representations of Reynard, once more as a
larder regarder. The pilgrim's hat, borne by one of the figures, is a
further reminder of the Fable, and the monkish garb is of course in
keeping. These two are somewhat singular in being fox-headed men. At
Chester, also, is a Fox feigning death.
[Illustration: THE FOX FEIGNING DEATH, NANTWICH.]
[Illustration: THE TEMPTATION. THE PUNISHMENT. THE WAKE KNOT. BEVERLEY
MINSTER.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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