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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture 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 On 20/12/2010 10:49 AM, John Dillon wrote: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > > On Monday, December 20, 2010, at 10:16 am, Jim Bugslag wrote: > >> ...As for the "wyverns" (or whatever), it is >> still debatable, in my view, just how to characterize them in terms of >> "symbolism"; they might equally have been considered appropriate >> decorative elaborations. > In this instance, given the presence of the feline-headed creature at top center in the composition<http://tinyurl.com/yzuqw9u>, one might think we are are in the presence of evil. Cf. 1 Peter 5:8, _ sobrii estote vigilate quia adversarius vester diabolus tamquam leo rugiens circuit quaerens quem devoret_. Those somewhat vine-like lines emanating from the latter's mouth are presumably evil exhalations (miasmas). The somewhat canine-headed dragons have smaller versions of these. > > As far as placement is concerned, a good comparandum would be the dragon facing the entrance arch on the portico frieze (said to be originally earlier thirteenth-century) of the cathedral of Santi Pietro e Cesareo in Terracina: > http://tinyurl.com/23gf4bz > http://tinyurl.com/2hmlcv > There too I would take the dragon to represent the presence in the world of active evil (against which the church is a safeguard), even though the symbolism of the figures on the frieze as a whole (i.e., on what's left of it) is apparently varied. Proving that, though, would be a different matter. > > Best, > John Dillon > > ********************************************************************** > To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME > to: [log in to unmask] > To send a message to the list, address it to: > [log in to unmask] > To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion > to: [log in to unmask] > In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: > [log in to unmask] > For further information, visit our web site: > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html > > ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html