Sheet mask

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Sheet mask on the cantilever of the Bamberg rider
Flowing mask, also known as the Gorgon head , in Bath

The sheet mask ( Green Man ) is mostly a sculptural detail in architecture that appears as an archetype . The architectural ornament is a face, the hair of which is formed by acanthus-like leaf shapes, but it can also be composed exclusively of leaves and thus only create the illusion of a face. The sheet mask has been documented since Roman times (1st century BC) and is best known in Germany in the right console stone of the Bamberg rider . From this period (first half of the 13th century) cartoon representation are both variants in Bauhütte book of Villard de Honnecourt obtain. Sheet masks can be found up to the Renaissance and are revived in French and German Romanticism . In contrast , they rarely appear in the Baroque and Mannerist periods . Sheet masks can be found on consoles , capitals , keystones and agraffes , but also in choir stalls and in manuscripts in the Middle Ages.

Assignments

Since sheet masks consistently have their own characteristics, they are used in art history and architectural history to identify certain artists or trends. For example, the sheet mask is used as an eyelash filling in Cologne Cathedral in order to create a reference for the two construction works in comparison with Schwäbisch Gmünd . The Cologne sheet masks are an important indication that the master builder Heinrich I. Parler from Gmünd previously worked in Cologne. Four categories are used to differentiate sheet masks:

  • Spouting - vegetable leaks or enters from the mouth
  • Excretory - vegetable grows from the eye, nose, ear and skin.
  • Green man engl. Green Man - face appears in a collection of leaves
  • Leaf face - face is formed from leaves

The categories are used in the chronological allocation of the architectural styles in sacred buildings. Until the 13th century, human and vegetable forms were often combined with one another, but clearly distinguished. In the Gothic period, leaves are not only added to the heads, but the faces themselves are formed from leaves. In addition, the depictions of plants, which were mostly stylized in the Romanesque, can now be botanically identified.

Gallery spitting and leaving in Germany

Gallery Blattgesicht in Germany

reception

Anne Duden attacks the symbolism of the floral male faces and uses them in sacred buildings in order to confront gender tension in a historical context with the figure of the male Medusa . The head carved in stone is attested by Duden to have an apotropaic effect, in that, as postulated by Freud , what triggers fear is used for defense.

Sheet mask Medusian in the city church of Sibiu

Wolfgang Metternich points out devils, spirits and demons in his publication . The uncanny in medieval art points to a possible religious subculture in the sheet masks. Since Christian saints were not available for the believers, the sculptors are said to have used pagan motifs to express their faith. Quote:

Although officially ostracized, the spirits of nature and demons found their way into the Christian world, were dealt with in detail in tracts and illustrated and found their place in churches, monasteries and cathedrals.

Günther Prechter proves that the tree is related to humans and cites Ovid's literary adaptation of a scene in his Metamorphoses in which Daphne evades persecution by the amorous god Apollo by transforming himself into a laurel tree

... the swelling breasts are wrapped in supple bast. The hair grows green to leaves ...

This scene of a Greek motif can be found in the Germanic and Slavic myths and the anonymous folk tales , as well as the art fairy tales of modern authors ( Collodis Pinocchio, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Rowling's Harry Potter ). The author recognizes in this an archetype of the western culture, which is reflected in the sheet mask. The moment of renewal and transformation that is experienced in the seasons change in the northern regions can be taken as a template for the diverse plant manifestations of the leaf faces. A syncretism that allows the incorporation of local deities seems to have been used in and on Christian buildings as a transitional phenomenon.

Dorlisheim St. Laurent's head sprouting out of the vine (mid-12th century). Illustration of: I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him brings much fruit; because without me you can't do anything. (Joh 15,5; LUT)

Another attempt at interpreting the leaf faces draws on the so-called Seth or Kreuzholz legend, which not only left deep traces in the imagination of people in the Middle Ages, but also in iconography. An angel gives Seth three seeds from the tree of knowledge. Seth puts the seeds in the mouth of the dead Adam. From this a large tree develops, from the wood of which the cross of Christ should be made. When the cross of Christ was erected on Mount Golgotha (skull height), the skull of Adam appeared. The tree of life becomes the tree of death, which however bears the fruit of the Savior. In this interpretation, the sheet mask symbolizes the founder of Christianity who is at the center of creation.

On the idol character of a small sculpture, to which the sheet mask can be counted, Dr. Günter Baumann there. To this day, the mask face has lost none of its effectiveness in the succession of a Venus von Willendorf . He describes the intimate cult within human groups as the oldest basis for small sculptures. The head as a philosophical metaphor and as a pars pro toto , representative of people, connects pagan and Christian worldviews. A poem by Paul Celan is used as an example : Half-eaten, masked / faced corbel, / deep / in the eye-slit crypt: / In, up / inside the skull, / where you break the sky, again and again, / in furrow and Twist / he plants his image / that outgrows, outgrows . Sheet mask as a transformation and approximation of images.

Gallery chronologically

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Green Man  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harald Olbrich (Ed.): Lexikon der Kunst , study edition Vol. 1 (A-Cim), Verlag EA Seemann, Leipzig 2004, ISBN 3-86502-084-4 (p. 579)
  2. ↑ Mike Harding: The Green Man. extensive collection of sheet masks, January 6, 1998, accessed October 17, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Review by: Peter Dinzelbacher in Mediaevistik Vol. 15, 2002. Peter Lang AG. The Green Man by Kathleen Basford (p. 253)
  4. ↑ Michael Jähne: Aspects: The architectural sculpture of the late Middle Ages in Saarland. Institute for Current Art in Saarland, October 30, 2017, accessed on November 26, 2017 .
  5. ^ Günther Prechter: Architecture as a social practice. Tree and human shape. Böhlau, 2013, accessed April 14, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Ulrike Kalbaum. Romanesque lintels and tympana in southwest Germany. Waxmann Verlag, 2011. p. 248
  7. ↑ doubted Thomas speaks to pagans. Church Times, November 2, 2006, accessed August 11, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Small sculptures of the present. Galerie Schlichtenmaier, September 2, 2015, accessed on October 11, 2019 .
  9. ^ Siegfried FA Brandt: Essay: Dragons, Monsters, Sirens and Centaurs. Animals and insects, green men and of course Biblical figures, angels and saints in St. Peter's Cathedral in Exeter, England / Devon. Academia, November 1, 2016, accessed January 10, 2019 .