I received two books as a gift from my sister in England. The titles are A Little Book of The Green Man and A Little Book of Misericords. The books are about certain types of sculptures found in medieval churches and monasteries.
The Green Man is a head or face that is surrounded by foliage which is sometimes growing from the head or spewing from the mouth. Apparently variations of this image is known in many different parts of the world so it is not specific to medieval Europe or any one culture. The best part is no one seems to know exactly what the image means so it is quite mysterious. The book does not delve too deeply into the meaning but focuses on the visual enjoyment of the imagery. It is not difficult to find Green Man images on the web.
The word misericord is derived from the Latin for "pity" and "heart" and is a small ledge on which a monk could rest during a long church service. Rather appropriately named! The misericord is actually on the underside of the normal seat and is only visible when the seat is upright. For something that was completely hidden part of the time, the detail carved into the misericord is quite extraordinary. Even more curious is that the carvings rarely depicted religious scenes as one might expect, but scenes from everyday life. Here is a gallery dedicated to misericord images.
Although this subject is not one of my usual interests, it is never-the-less quite fascinating.
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