File:The grotesque in church art (1899) (14594889819).jpg

Identifier: grotesqueinchurc00wild (find matches)
Title: The grotesque in church art
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Wildridge, Thomas Tindall
Subjects: Grotesque Christian art and symbolism Church decoration and ornament
Publisher: London, W. Andrews & co.
Contributing Library: PIMS - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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ngsillustrate those writings, for Mystery Playswere in general founded upon the canonicalscriptures. There are many carvings whichhave Biblical incidents for their subject,but it is often impossible to say whetherthe text were the sole material of the designer, or whetherhis ideas were formed by representations he had seen on theMystery stage. It may be presumed that the effect wouldnot be greatly different in one case from the other. The story of Jonah furnishes a subject for two misericordesin Ripon Cathedral. One is in the frontispiece of this volume.In the first the prophet is being pushed by three menunceremoniously over the side of the vessel which has theusual mediaeval characteristics, and, in which, plainly, there isno room for a fourth person. The ship is riding easily onby no means tumultuous waves, out of which protrudes thehead of the great fish. The fish and Jonah appear to regardthe situation with equal complacency. In the sequel carving Jonah is shewn being cast out by
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SCRIPTURAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 113 the fish, of which, as in the other, the head only is visible.The monster of the deep has altered its appearance slightlyduring the period of Jonahs incarceration, its square upperteeth having become pointed. The prophet is representedkneeling among the teeth, apparently offering up thanks forhis deliverance. The sea is bounded by a rocky shore onwhich stand trees of the well-known grotesque type in whichthey are excellent fir-cones. These two carvings are of somewhat special interest, astheir precise origin is known. They are both exceedinglyclose copies of engravings in the Biblia Pauperum, or PoorMans Bible, otherwise called Speculum Humanae Sal-vationist or the Mirror of Human Salvation. Other Biblicalsubjects in the Ripon Series of Misericordes are from the samesource. Did the Sculptor or Sculptors of the series fall shortof subjects, or were their eyes caught by the definite outlinesof the prints in the Picture Bible as it lay chained in theMinster?

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