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Margaret Cormack wrote: >When do we start finding images of St. Lawrence actually being roasted.... Dear Margaret, Being iconographically challenged I can only try and keep the ball in the air until some of the heavy-hitters on the list get enough offended by my shameless metaphor-mixing that they will weigh in with something of substance and make the basket. If I remember rightly, the frying of St. Lawrence iconogrphy goes back quite a ways, at least to a Ravenna mosaic (the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia http://www.users2.dircon.co.uk/~asm/features/mausolem.htm (slow .uk connection) http://www.racine.ra.it/RACINE/docs/I/05F5E49B/RAVENNA/galla2uk.htm though, here I note that though the grill is warm and waiting to accept him the saint himself is not quite ready; and, in any case, there is a wonderful early 12th c. example (and a quite proper grilling) in a mural from the little _villa_ chapel of Berzé-la-Ville (near-by, and property of, Cluny): http://www.willamette.edu/~anicgors/art359/berze3.jpg (with thanks to Prof. Ann M. Nicgorski, whose site is a wonderful resource, btw) The magnificent and complex, byzantinizing style at Berzé (http://www.willamette.edu/~anicgors/art359/berze1.jpg ) is surely a reflection of that which we have lost at Cluny, and the iconography as well must have had quite a good 11th-12th c. run, certainly not sucking itself out of its own fingers at this modest site. Best from here, Christopher ____________________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%