As students of this blog know, we have long been fond of Romanesque sculptural grotesques--hunky-punks, chimeras, or, as we mostly call them, funny faces--and we have travelled long and far all over western Europe to find some of the best examples and to post pix of them here. (Enter "funny faces" in the search box; maybe fix yourself a snack and beverage first.) The place where this all began, in 2009, is in the hamlet of Kilpeck, near Hereford, at the early 12th century parish church of St. Mary and St. David. We returned once again on May 23rd, our 4th visit. As usual, we found all the familiar faces but also found some new images and features at which to marvel. I'll post pix of only a few of the couple score of grotesques below and refer to previous posts for fuller coverage:
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2009/10/parish-church-of-st-mary-and-st-david.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2016/05/return-to-kilpeck-1.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2016/05/return-to-kilpeck-2_29.htmlhttps://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2022/05/return-to-kilpeck-2022.html.
These posts also provide a bit more information on the Hereford School of Romanesque Sculpture, the Sheela-na-gig, and other matters. BTW, grotesques and gargoyles are different beasts: grotesques are purely decorative while gargoyles have a mainly plumbing function, in addition to the aesthetics.
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| The parish church of SS Mary and David...completed about 1130-1145 |
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Portal...click to enlarge and see whether you can find any
obviously Christian symbols... |
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| Lots of Celtic or so... |
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| Ditto |
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The funny faces appears as corbels, sort of, between the
roof and outer wall, running all around the building; all
of them secular...or even profane |
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| Or Celtic |
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| The bell tower, as it were |
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Whenever you're sad, try to think of this 12th century
dog and bunny show |
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| Or the stupid ant-eater tricks |
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| It's not easy being green |
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| Fiddler on the roof |
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| Sorry to disappoint: actually a wrestling hold, not an embrace |
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| Now inside, where the more clearly Christian sacred things might be |
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| A favorite place |
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