The gate of the year

Leafy mask, on the outer wall of the Cathedral of Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany, acting as corbel to the well-known statue of the “Bamberg Horseman”, datable to about 1200. This typology of figures are known in the English world as “Green Man” or “Jack-in-the-Green”, are widespread mainly in Great Britain and Germany, on religious buildings and private houses, and persist until recent times. The decorative motif doubtless originates from folk traditions and beliefs, still alive during the Middle Ages, which personalized the world of the woods and forests as beings half-human and half-plants. Such figures intersect with that of the Wild Man, who in several representations, appears covered with plant elements and presents a strict contiguity with the plant world.

[Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Man#mediaviewer/File:Domreiter,_ Blattmaske.jpg]




Wild Men

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Leafy mask, on the outer wall of the Cathedral of Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany, acting as corbel to the well-known statue of the “Bamberg Horseman”, datable to about 1200. This typology of figures are known in the English world as “Green Man” or “Jack-in-the-Green”, are widespread mainly in Great Britain and Germany, on religious buildings and private houses, and persist until recent times. The decorative motif doubtless originates from folk traditions and beliefs, still alive during the Middle Ages, which personalized the world of the woods and forests as beings half-human and half-plants. Such figures intersect with that of the Wild Man, who in several representations, appears covered with plant elements and presents a strict contiguity with the plant world. [Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Man#mediaviewer/File:Domreiter,_ Blattmaske.jpg]