medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Henk 't Jong <[log in to unmask]>
> Curious! Does this mean that stone buildings freeze and crumble when
they're
not painted? Is this another urban myth?
Henk
> Back to the middle ages. The original question still applies. If the White
House was coated in white to protect the limestone against winter freezes,
could this not explain why medieval stone buildings were coated? Crockett?
Briggs?
many types of stone can definitely suffer frieze damage if it is laid
improperly, with their end grain exposed vertically --the water can find the
smallest fisures in the original bedding and the, as they say, the rest is
herstory.
walls are, of course, laid with the stones grain running horizontaly --but
elements like the tops of towers, pennacles, etc. also have to be laid this
way, else they would fracture (and sooner rather than later, i should think).
statues directly exposed to the elements also suffer damage, since a
(vertical) statue is made with its grain running vertically.
my understanding, from digging around in the Archives of the Monuments
Alcoholiques some decades ago, is that one of the statue-columns of the Royal
Portal of the collegial of St. Mary of Etampes (which looks rather like its
contemporary, the west, "royal," Rortal of nearby Chartres) suffered what
sounded to me like a "freeze fracture" during WWII, and about half of it fell
off its place on the portal, split vertically, right along the grain of the
stone.
i read the reports of the incident in French and in German (by the commander
of the occupying force), so i'm convinced that it actually happened, but i've
looked for signs of it on the portal itself and can't seem to see any.
so it goes.
c
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