Super Epic Cathedral Trip Day 1

I have to admit that the original idea was to make posts on the road as I go along. But the hours in between cities were spent with me pouring over the GPS or ‘counting churches’ – a game of Adrian’s invention. Writing in the evening was out of question as they were spent hastily searching for rooms for the night it was impossible to predict where we will be staying the nights in advance. And late evenings – well I rarely had power in me to brush my teeth before blacking out from exhaustion and over excitement.

Day1, start from Glasgow 1730, planned night Hexam/Corbridge

Adventures started in Glasgow. It turns out that Glasgow is a nightmare to enter and to leave and the amount of roads cress-crossing the GPS usually gets it wrong. The first stop was Roslyn and I was a maniac with the camera and taking pictures of everything I could see during the short trip there.

Rosslyn Chapel (aka Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew)

This small mid-15th century Roman Catholic collegiate church became known to the world mostly because of the book that shall not be named. With the fame came the tourists and with them funds. Currently the West side of the church is being renovated and a contemporary entrance with the information desk and gift shop were built on to the West side.

The church looks like a delicate ivory miniature of a cathedral in stone. It is tiny, delicate and fragile looking on the exterior.

Unfortunately I never saw the interior as we arrived after working hours thus I never got a chance to search for the famous Templiers treasures and the remains of Christ and/or Mary Magdalene but I did find a bunny hill with many bunnies opping around.

This strongly reminded me of an illumination from a Luttrell Psalter (which was posted in an earlier entry)

From Rosslyn we headed North to Jedburgh Abbey or what remains of it.

Jedburgh is a picturesque Scottish village which lies less than 20km away from the border with England and is home to the loveliest people. Maybe it is because we looked like tired lost tourists or the people there are inherently extra nice but I thought we were getting special treatment, when we asked for direction we were given the most detailed instructions or we were escorted to the place.

The Abbey itself was founded in the 12th century by Augustinian monks. It saw destruction by various Earls in the 15th century, yet it was the Scottish reformation that brought it to its down fall. The West transept (the part with windows) is used as a parish church.

It should be added that Jedburgh is also home to a castle, which was then used as a jail, and in the contemporary times as a Youth Hostel and currently it is a museum.

We left Jedburgh at twilight which was probably a mistake as the road to Hexam was long and narrow and went up and down through the hills. At the beginning of it we discovered a sign with a skull and crossed bones telling us that there were 75 deaths on it in the last three years (aka this is a death road).

After a loooong and scary drive (during which I kept remembering Jeepers Creepers) the journey ended in Hexam at around 2230 with us having nowhere to stay. Google showed only three hotels/B&B nearby. The first one was closed for the night, the second one asked for a first born (metaphorically of course), the third one – we were lucky, as we later found out if the landlord hadn’t had 4 cancellations that day and if he hadn’t stayed with his friends for a drink after work he wouldn’t have bothered to pick up the phone when we rang at 2300. The Bed and Breakfast was slightly out of Hexam right next to Hadrian’s Wall which was the first thing we saw on day 2.

 

The Luttrell monsters

Yesterday in the stupid hours of the night I literally stumbled across a facsimile of the Luttrell psalter in the library. [when I say stumble I mean it, somebody left it on the floor where they were sitting and I tripped over it]

I will not go in to detail about the manuscript as it is ridiculously famous (especially for its marginalia) and its easy to find information about it on the web and in any library. The manuscript itself was created for Geoffrey Luttrell around 1325-1335.

Geoffrey Luttrell with his wife and daughter in law. Luttrell Psalter, Diocese of Lincoln, c.1325-1335, London British Library, Add MS 42130, fol 202 v.

I have seen a couple of images from the psalter before and to tell the truth because they were mostly the peasant/farming scenes I never felt inclined to search it out and study. Yet after it tripped me over and I was searching for an excuse to procrastinate I decided to give it a go. 

It is one of the most exquisite awesome things I have ever seen. There are no full page illuminations but the marginalia images are to die for. So bright, so humorous, so colourful! So imaginative! Seriously contemporary imagination is put to shame compared to the craziness that is happening on Luttrell borders. I applaude the workshop that had such extensive imagination to create so many hybrids with no two similar. I can probably sing praises for another few paragraphs so I will stop writing here and just upload the the images for them to be judged in their own right.

And we shall start with two UNICORNS!!!

Luttrell Psalter, Diocese of Lincoln, c.1325-1335, London British Library, Add MS 42130, fol 15 r.

Luttrell Psalter, Diocese of Lincoln, c.1325-1335, London British Library, Add MS 42130, fol 179r.

I have no idea what it is but I think its cute.

Luttrell Psalter, Diocese of Lincoln, c.1325-1335, London British Library, Add MS 42130, fol 24r. 

The Martyrdom of St Bartholomew

The martyrdom of St Bartholomew. Luttrell Psalter, Diocese of Lincoln, c.1325-1335, London British Library, Add MS 42130, fol 103v.

This image still give me the chills thought to be fair the skinned Bartholomew is probably scarier in Michelangelo's image, but this one is more graphic in that it shows the actual process of skinning.

Michelangelo, Last Judgment, 1531-1541, Fresco, Sistine Chapel, Vatican (Detail)

 I really like this hybrid bunny.

Luttrell Psalter, Diocese of Lincoln, c.1325-1335, London British Library, Add MS 42130, fol 156v.

 Bunny Hill! 

Luttrell Psalter, Diocese of Lincoln, c.1325-1335, London British Library, Add MS 42130, fol 176v.

 The two bunnies on the top remind me of South Park's Christmas Critters. 

South Park Christmas Critter

nom nom!

Luttrell Psalter, Diocese of Lincoln, c.1325-1335, London British Library, Add MS 42130, fol 192r.

More funnzies

Luttrell Psalter, Diocese of Lincoln, c.1325-1335, London British Library, Add MS 42130, fol 145r.

Luttrell Psalter, Diocese of Lincoln, c.1325-1335, London British Library, Add MS 42130, fol 148r.

Luttrell Psalter, Diocese of Lincoln, c.1325-1335, London British Library, Add MS 42130, fol 38r.

Luttrell Psalter, Diocese of Lincoln, c.1325-1335, London British Library, Add MS 42130, fol 64v.

This one I find very flirty, its as if she is playfully posing. I can almost see it fit well on the contemporary red carpet, (compared to Lady Gaga I dont thing anyone will even notice it)

Luttrell Psalter, Diocese of Lincoln, c.1325-1335, London British Library, Add MS 42130, fol 81r.

In the end all I can say is I found my new favourite procrastination book, if only it was less heavy.


Jenny


Book of the day: M.P. Brown, Luttrell Psalter/; a facsimile, London : British Library, 2006.  

Like Johnny

Sitting in the library with greasy hair and hipster glasses, looking at medieval manuscript illuminations: I feel like Johnny Depp in 9th Gate.

I feel like Donestre

I do have some weird fascination with monsters; I still throw a glance at my wardrobe to make sure that there is no Boogieman before going to sleep. 

The Boogieman found on the Madrid Fashion Week 2009 catwalk.

 The word ‘Monster’ is believed to come from the Latin monstro meanings ‘to show’, ‘to demonstrate’, the idea being that monsters show outside themselves. Maybe it is because they are meant to be signs that they are so easy to relate to. Despite the almost 1000 year gap between the scribe of Marvels of the East manuscript and me and the fact that the monsters and concerns of 21^st century are different from 1050, I found myself relating to this guy:

Donestre devouring a traveler (bottom right) and crying over the dismembered head (bottom left) from Marvels of the East (Anglo-Saxon, c. 1050)
London, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius B. v., fol. 83v.

Donestre weeping over the head, Notice the look of pity and guilt.

 Donestre were believed to be multilingual and when travelers came across them they would greet foreigners in their language. Once they gained the travelers trust they devoured their body. And then in a radical display of consciousness they would weep over the disembodied head. 

I find this story touching and right now Donestre can be the symbol of my day, no not because I devoured someone. Well I did devour far to many sweets and now I am sitting surrounded by wrappers stirring in my own guilt. So Donestre can be a symbol of everyone who regrets eating too much too soon.  

Another reason is that I was really looking forward to studying today as I have an awesome book to read, yet after switching on the computer I spent half of the day procrastinating. and now I keep looking at the time, the book and the computer guilty of my laziness. And I know that while its weeks till the exam I will be happily procrastinating ( Donestre devouring the body) once its down to days I will feel guilty and spend the rest of the time until exam blaming myself ( Donestre crying over the head). 

Jenny

Book of the day: Debra H. Strickland, Saracens, Demons and Jews, Princeton, N.J. ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, 2003.

Religion and fashion

Holy Heels

The irony is if you type religion and fashion in to google almost nothing on the topic comes up, yet type in something more descriptive like ‘high heel cross’ and you get a glossy photograph of shoes with cross shaped heels. And this image of the shoe becomes the missing link in to the world where fashion and religion go hand in hand, what is even more interesting that it is not some dodgy, grudgy, emo-gothic subculture but main stream fashion. Almost every mainstream high street clothes retail sold wooden bracelets with Christian themed stickers on them and other accessories with Christian symbols such as the cross.

River Island 'Black Religious Photo Wrist Bands'

It is interesting that not only Christian symbols are used but also Jewish ones, however if the Christian ones get some kind of faith recognition in the name of the product ‘Religious Photo Wrist Bands', the hamsa is called ‘Hand Charm’.

River Island 'Brown Beaded Hand Charm Bracelet'

To find out what the public makes of these images I uploaded the 'Holy Heels' image on to my pinterest account. In a couple of hours the image had 4 likes and 12 repins. Considering that I have only 7 followers on Pinterest most of whom I know and that the people who have repined the image were strangers to me I found this to show the image's popularity. It was interesting to see to where was the image repined. Six people pinned it in to beauty and style, four in to artsy and ‘cute things gone dodgy’, one in to 'churches' and only one in to Faith. So the irony is only one out of 12 people sees the cross as having anything to do with faith and/or worldview, and two out of 12 see it as having anything to do with religion. For the rest the cross is a stylish, exciting, sexy accessory.

I always wonder if  people know that they are wearing an execution device? Maybe I should order a t-shirt with an electric chair?

A. Warhol, Electric Chair, 1971

Or a necklace with a guillotine?

What is it that excites us? Is it because these originally were meant to harm and by wearing them we are domesticating the danger? Or is it the fact that Christian symbols are supposed to have some meaning or a hidden power? After all Da Vinci Code ( hence forth ‘the book that shall not be named’) did prove one thing - that Jesus is still a pop celebrity and any ‘sensationalist’  gossip about him and his sex life will be flying of the shelves. Yet judging by the pintrest re-pins though recognisable the image has nothing to do with its original meaning rather it is more of a symbol of something else: Goth/rock/metal chic. Through images and popular culture the cross, st peter’s cross, and pentagram became mixed together and blended with skulls, dark eye shadows, leather jackets, cigarette smoke and pompous/mournful/no-one-understands- me lyrics. Christian symbols became the identity signs of the sinful saint.

 

A cross is no longer a celebration of faith it is what you wear on your bra when dancing in high heels looking glamorous and glossy.

Jenny

So I am new here.

As the name implies the main concern of this blog is the Devil and everything to do with him/her/it but especially the representation in art. I want to know how did Devil, Lucifer, Mephistopheles, Satan, Snake in Genesis 3 become to be seen as one character. Is Antichrist the same figure as the Devil?

How did the 12th century Saint Hildegard’s hairy poop with a silly crooked smile (technically Antichrist not Devil), turn in to the dreamy Lucifer in Paradise Lost as presented by Dore, and then in to a well suited and sleek Al Pacino, to then be turned in to Saddam's lover in South Park and a year later to re-appear as the gorgeous Elizabeth Hurley?

 

Hildegard of Bingen, Illumination for. Scivias III.5 in the Rupertsberg MS.

Lucifer, Paradise Lost, Gustave Dore

"Vanity — definitely my favorite sin." (1997)

The happy Couple in South Park (1999)

Bedazzled (2000)

 

Why did the cross of St Peter become the symbol of Antichrist and what is so fashionable about it? 

For some reason I find this the coolest thing I've seen all week. The Hermeneutic possibilities of this are endless (especially that there are three of them and its a Barbie!)

Love and an ancient tool of execution  = a perfect match?

 

Hopefully this blog will turn in to something of a casual digital scrap book of everything to do with my next year’s research – an outlet for everything that I find awesome (and what others usually find lame or stupid) such as the Devil, medieval manuscripts, the Bible, popular culture, Disney and comics, churches (especially churches), contemporary art, Romanesque and Gothic art, and everything that has anything to do with art and religion (which funny enough in the West is almost everything).

Jenny