Look and Look Again!

The Alpha and Omega of sketching is look and look again but sometimes things just become clear when you look at a screen, as was the case with this sketch! This is a crest from our local church and if you look very carefully you can see we've got a ''green man'', eyes nose and mouth surrounded by foliage and once again at the bottom! 

The origins of the Green Man are thought to be pagan and the foliate heads are really multi-culti! There are so many theories about them but why they are found adorning ecclesiastical buildings like the gothic cathedrals of Europe remains a mystery. 

It’s fascinating to think that people in the Middle Ages knew exactly what this figure represented but we remain in the dark, a common belief is that the green men represent death and rebirth, resurrection and the cycle of the seasons. In many cultures masks on buildings were placed there to frighten away spirits, the Celts worshipped heads and one burial ritual associated with the Celts is placing a seed in the mouth so that a tree would grow out of the mouth and skull, skulls were also hung on posts in front of ritual sites.

This church in my sketch was built in 1658 at a time where the foliate heads were dying out in church decorations but here in Germany I've found so many of these ''Green Men'' from a much later period, like this other one in Zeil am Main from 1689. 

In the UK you very often find pub signs dedicated to ''The Green Man'' and another idea is that Green Men represented savages, clothed in leaves and often carrying clubs, they took part in parades and processions; some even had fireworks emanating from their clubs to chase crowds away.

Whatever these foliate heads represent is lost to us in the mists of time but every now and again they pop up to remind us that however knowledgeable we think we are there is so much that still remains to discover!