medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
To add to what christopher has said below, herewith an example that will have been seen by many travelers to Venice after ca. 1172: Theodore of Amasea (the city's earliest patron saint) astride a crocodile on one of those raised columns next to the Doges' palace:
http://tinyurl.com/ybs64g3
http://tinyurl.com/ylg8wf8
http://tinyurl.com/38xgrr
http://tinyurl.com/yjksnaw
That's a replica. Here's the original, on display _in_ the Palazzo Ducale:
968/(http://www.museumplanet.com/tour.php/venice/dp/12" target="_blank">http://www.museumplanet.com/tour.php/venice/dp/12
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeanty/4245202 wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> From: "Cormack, Margaret Jean" <[log in to unmask]>
>
> >Can you (or other list members) comment on how common it is for a saint to
> be portrayed treading on a dragon, and when the motif starts to appear?
>
>
> the motif is, of course, quite ancient --think: an Egyptian god or Pharaoh
> striding on the back of a crocodile (symbol of Seth, an evil god), holding a
> lance and stabbing the beast in the mouth with it.
>
> (an interesting variation is in a Coptic relief, 2,000 years later, in the
> Louvre depicting a mounted "Roman" soldier stabbing a crocodile, under his
> horse, in the mouth.)
>
> but, it is may be that the English tomb sculptor did not have Egyptian
> artifacts before his eyes, or even in mind.
>
> closer in time (and space) might be somewhat later manifestations of the
> theme, as on the South porch of Chartres cathedral:
>
> http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/getimage-idx?cc=chartres;entryid=x-fcsp333610220;viewid=FCSP333610220.TIF;quality=m800;view=image
>
> http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/getimage-idx?cc=chartres;entryid=x-fcsp333610225;viewid=FCSP333610225.TIF;quality=m800;view=image
>
> the figure of the bishop on the right has been identified by Clarke Maines
> (and, perhaps largely accepted) as Becket, standing on Hank 2 and, as it were,
> Giving him the Shaft.
>
>
> the Chartres figure is only a generation or so before the York tomb, and the
> Becket connection might have particularly resonated with an English bishop.
>
> did Walt de Gray ever make a pilgrimage to Chartres?
>
> but, failing that, i would think that the motif is just too common to be able
> to say with any certainty that Chartres was the "model" for the tomb effigy.
>
> i'm sure that there is literature on the de Gray tomb which will probably run
> all this to Earth.
>
> c
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