medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Monday, December 20, 2010, at 1:43 pm, Jim Bugslag wrote:
> John,
> I have no problem seeing some sort of generalized "evil" in such
> figures, although, as I said, I'm not convinced that one can be so
> precisely symbolically programmatic about it as that. But the issue
> raises questions that are difficult to answer, such as: 1) Why it was
> thought appropriate to place such representations on a church in the
> first place. Your suggestion along the lines of evil outside the
> church and presumably spiritual purity within might work in this
> instance, but there are lots of examples of such "evil" characters
> even within churches (including some quite over-the-top sexual
> perversions). 2) Why it was considered appropriate to represent
> "evil" by means of the medieval equivalent of cartoon characters,
> whereas the good guys are all (or mostly) human. In this last
> respect, even weirder than the "wyverns" painted in the spandrels are
> the curious creatures carved on the capitals below; on the left, they
> look to me like animal-headed angels.
> Cheers,
> Jim
Jim,
I wasn't intending an inside/outside dichotomy with regard to a church building but rather to the church as the community of the faithful. Cf. Ivo of Chartres on excommunication (_Decretum_, pars II, cap. 94; _PL_ 161, col. 183): _Omnis Christianus, dilectissimi, qui a sacerdotibus excommunicatur, Satanae tradi dicitur_ [I Cor. V]. _Quomodo? Scilicet quia extra Ecclesiam est diabolus, sicut in Ecclesia Christus; ac per hoc quasi diabolo tradi dicitur, qui ab ecclesiastica communione removetur_.
With regard to 2), above, I suppose the use of grotesques etc. is to indicate negatively valued _difference_, a hard thing to show if all the figures look "normal".
My reading of the creatures on the capitals at lower left here
http://tinyurl.com/yzuqw9u
is about the same as yours (in addition to being perversions of angels, though, I would also suggest perversions of evangelists). And those on the right seem to figure _Mischwesen_ as well (e.g. the middle capital has what looks to be a siren). As they are below the lintel, one _could_ read their relation to Christ in Majesty and his angelic and saintly entourage as one of subordination. And perhaps even of being being repressed. Not that I would insist on that. This is a composition that permits but does not necessarily enforce so specific a reading.
Best again,
John Dillon
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