The gate of the year

Figure above:

Wooden sculpture representing a Wild Man with a big knotted stick in his hand, on the outer wall of the Maison de la Duchesse Anne, a building of the XVI century, at Morlaix, Bretagne, France.

[Image: http://www.michele-aquaron.com/admin/upload/HVS%20Anne%20de%20 Bretagne.jpg]

Figure below:

Illustration from a manuscript dating to 1455 (Nr. 602), containing the life and enterprises of Saint Gall, kept in the Abbey Library (Stiftsbibliothek) at Saint Gall, Switzerland.

[Image: http://www.gallusjubilaeum.ch/konzept/werte.cfm]

The hagiographic legend narrates that Saint Gall, during a voyage came near the waterfalls that took their name from him, and here encountered a menacing bear. Not being sacred by it, the Saint ordered to the bear to put a piece of wood into the fire and not to be seen again: the bear obeyed immediately, showing thus having acknowledged the Saint’s superior power. The Wild Man and the bear, figures ever present in the medieval imaginary, show elements of strict contiguity. The iconographic analysis demonstrates that attributes and functions often overlap. In the present case, the stick that always accompanies the Wild Man is held by the bear with its forepaws, while it assumes an upright position. If the Wild Man contains zoomorphic elements, the bear is the mostly humanized animal.




Selvaggi

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Figure above: Wooden sculpture representing a Wild Man with a big knotted stick in his hand, on the outer wall of the Maison de la Duchesse Anne, a building of the XVI century, at Morlaix, Bretagne, France. [Image: http://www.michele-aquaron.com/admin/upload/HVS%20Anne%20de%20 Bretagne.jpg] Figure below: Illustration from a manuscript dating to 1455 (Nr. 602), containing the life and enterprises of Saint Gall, kept in the Abbey Library (Stiftsbibliothek) at Saint Gall, Switzerland. [Image: http://www.gallusjubilaeum.ch/konzept/werte.cfm] The hagiographic legend narrates that Saint Gall, during a voyage came near the waterfalls that took their name from him, and here encountered a menacing bear. Not being sacred by it, the Saint ordered to the bear to put a piece of wood into the fire and not to be seen again: the bear obeyed immediately, showing thus having acknowledged the Saint’s superior power. The Wild Man and the bear, figures ever present in the medieval imaginary, show elements of strict contiguity. The iconographic analysis demonstrates that attributes and functions often overlap. In the present case, the stick that always accompanies the Wild Man is held by the bear with its forepaws, while it assumes an upright position. If the Wild Man contains zoomorphic elements, the bear is the mostly humanized animal.