I doubt that there was an established iconography for the phenomenon. I've come across a description of an (embroidered) image of a 'fiery whirlwind' (prester) but cross-referencing this description with others of the same or similar embroidery, and with a possible actual image it seems to me that the textile being described was actually embroidered with what we might call sunbursts, ie. a sun with wiggly rays. There's a link to a paper I gave (text and images) on my academia.edu page

https://birkbeck.academia.edu/LauraJacobus. In case of doubt, it's the one called 'Fiery Whirlwinds, Flying Pigs, and a 300-year-old Virgin....'

all best

Laura

Dr. Laura Jacobus

Senior Lecturer in History of Art

Birkbeck, University of London

For details of my book on Giotto and the Arena Chapel see http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9781905375127-1

On 5 April 2017 at 18:24, Richard Legault <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The Whirlwind is a well known biblical image, most notably in the Book of Job, where God appears to Job from out of a whirlwind and in 2 Cronicles where Elijah is lifted up in a whirlwind. I have been searching for good examples of whirlwind images in medieval art and so far have only be able to locate one possible (see "Exhibit B" at https://listoffigures.wordpress.com/tag/tornado/).

I would be grateful to anyone on the list who can guide me to any primary medieval sources on whirlwinds (of any type including tornados, waterspouts, dust-devils and so-on) in texts, illuminations or any artwork of the period.

Thanks

Richard J Legault

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