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
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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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