The image above and the similar one farther up are carvings on wooden choir stalls. I'm not sure why there's a stone frog in the church, or even what the next-to-last photo shows. Or the first and second images, for that matter. Is that a tongue? What's that winged creature?
Our heat wave is supposed to be over now. Friday wasn't as hot as Thursday, despite forecasts to the contrary. Clouds moved over us and kept things slightly cooler. We'll see what today brings. I'm going shopping this morning to get some fresh vegetables and fruit. I haven't been to the outdoor market or the big produce market in Saint-Aignan since early March, before the pandemic struck. And now there's a hurricane headed toward North Carolina...
In some ways so much more interesting and thought provoking than the tightly executed and instantly recognizable imagery on the Amiens cathedral. Some of it does make me wonder about lasting Viking influences on their art and symbolism however.
ReplyDeleteI see some Vicking influence like Tigger. Perhaps the tongue is the North wind?
ReplyDeleteTo my untrained eye, some of the stone carvings look almost Art Deco. Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteDon’t know how I missed your post yesterday but I really like the new brown frames. As Evelyn said, they definitely compliment your eyes.
Photos three and six represent what we call in French a miséricorde. It seems it is the same word - without the final E - in English. What would be a more expressive expression, mercy seat, seems to have nothing to do with this part of a stall in a church.
ReplyDeleteOh, good thought, Evelyn!
ReplyDeleteYes I'm on board with everyone else thinking its Celtic influences in the carving. I think the next to the last picture is a bird. Thanks chm, for naming the misericordes, a word I'd never heard before, despite art history courses covering this era. But that was last century, lol.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. It is an unusual name for a thing.
DeleteThe second-to-last picture looks to me like a fish. See the scales on its back?
ReplyDeleteThe NOAA page shows the hurricane sliding past NC on Tuesday, but by then down to tropical storm warning. So perhaps they'll get off with just a bit of wind and rain.
I thought it looked like a fish too. Yes, the scales.
DeleteI'll have to agree with Diogenes, it is a bird, because fish's tails are always vertical and never horizontal as it is here. In addition, the wings are folded along the body and I think I see a long yellowish beak.The "scales" are stylized feathers.
DeleteEn fin de compte, I think CHM and Diogenes are right. Now I see the wings and beak.
DeleteThere was an nursing order of catholic nuns with a hospital in F's home town; called Mater Misericordiae. Now we see it means mother of mercy.
ReplyDeleteThere is a Canadian nursing congregation called les Sœurs de la Miséricorde.
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