medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Do share the details of work on monstrosity, Sarah!
Maybe we should think about a Christopher panel at Leeds or the 'Zoo. Ellie Pridgeon's work-in-progress paper at this year's IMC disclosed interesting hints of regional variance in wall painting depictions of the Big Man, and there was a paper on the OE Life by Jill Frederick. The aspect closest to my own work is the Continental distribution of dedications, sculpture, etc., which _seems_, as published, to indicate a corridor of interest up from northern Italy (surprisingly not the south) through the Alpine lands into Germany. I need a reason to check it out...
All the best
Graham
****************************************
Dr Graham Jones
Lecturer in English Topography
University of Leicester
Centre for English Local History
Marc Fitch Historical Institute
5 Salisbury Road
Leicester LE1 7QR
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)116 252 2764
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-----Original Message-----
From: Sarah Salih [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 26 July 2002 13:29
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] saints [monsters]
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Graham,
Going off on a tangent, I'm working on monsters as good
guys at the moment, sparked off by the dog-heads
(Christopher's kind) in Mandeville's Travels. OK, they eat
people from time to time, but are otherwise pious and
disciplined and models of elite warrior masculinity -
whereas Christopher on conversion becomes less monstrous,
able to speak and so on, Mandeville's dog-heads seem to be
doing OK on their own. And then there's Melusine, a
prestige ancestor, though I'd have thought claiming descent
from a giant snake might have its downside. There's quite a
lot of recent work on monstrosity - I can provide some
details if anyone's interested. Love the picture.
Sarah
On Thu, 25 Jul 2002 22:33:46 +0100 "Jones, Dr G.R."
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Dear All
>
> John Block Friedman makes the point, supported by
illustrations, in his book The Monstrous Races in Medieval
Art and Thought (Harvard University Press, 1981), that the
righteous were depicted with animal heads in medieval
Jewish art. Christopher reminds us of similar depictions of
righteousness in ancient Egypt. What I can't remember is
whether Friedman, or anyone else, attempts to explain how
one gets from righteousness to deformity/enormity, or
whether indeed if there was any such progression.
>
>Maybe Christopher's post-conversion righteousness has
nothing to do with his animal-head, and this refers only to
his membership of a monstrous race, but I wouldn't bet on
it, seeing these later medieval representations from places
in or adjacent to the Byzantine world.
>
> Of particular ambiguity (to my mind, but maybe I'm
wrong) is the presence of animal-headed hearers in the
thirteenth-century depiction of Pentecost I have on my
website at http://www.le.ac.uk/elh/grj1/links6.html. Are
they merely the monstrous races among all the other gentile
peoples mentioned in Acts, or is righteousness inferred?
(By the way, anyone know where the source of my image, the
Bar Ebroyo electronic library, has gone?)
>
> Best wishes
>
> Graham
>
> ****************************************
> Dr Graham Jones
> Lecturer in English Topography
> University of Leicester
> Centre for English Local History
> Marc Fitch Historical Institute
> 5 Salisbury Road
> Leicester LE1 7QR
> United Kingdom
>
> Tel: +44 (0)116 252 2764
> Fax: +44 (0)116 252 5769
>
> e-Mail: [log in to unmask]
> Web pages: http://www.le.ac.uk/elh/grj1
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christopher Crockett [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 25 July 2002 17:34
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [M-R] saints of the day 25. July
>
>
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> "Stephen A. Allen" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> >>Incidentally, does any learned list-member know why St.
> Christopher's Vita describes him as "dogheaded"?
>
>
> >If I recall correctly, according to some legends Christopher was physically
> deformed. He was supposed to be very large, almost a giant, with a head that
> looked like a dog's. An icon showing Christopher with a dog's head can be
> found at:
>
> http://www.ucc.ie/milmart/Christopher.html
>
>
> seems like some sort of Egyptian connection is involved here, somewhere,
> somehow.
>
> though i can find no mention of Egypt in the early vitae on this site (lots of
> talk about "idols" however).
>
> there's an earlier example of the iconography here :
>
> http://www.ucc.ie/milmart/chrsmisc.html
>
> with the caption here :
>
> http://www.ucc.ie/milmart/chrsmisc.html
>
> "A (museum quality copy of a) 6th/7th century terracotta plaque from Vinica in
> modern Macedonia. A dog-headed St. Christopher and St. George stand side by
> side, each stabbing a human-headed serpent with a spear. They each clasp a
> central military standard consisting of a large cross surmounting a pole."
>
> this one, particularly, reminds me of a coptic relief now in the Louvre
> depicting a mounted, Falcon-headed [Horus] St. George(?) in Roman armor
> spearing a Crocodile-shaped "dragon" [Seth] in what is a quite wonderful
> mélange of iconographies.
>
> much as the "Christopher" here is spearing the serpent below.
>
> the lower inscription looks like "AUDINO" ?
>
> can anyone make out the rest ?
>
> christopher
>
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