Tuesday, 3 April 2012

The Passion

The Passion, for those who don't know, is a term for Jesus' crucifixion on Good Friday. In medieval times one of the symbols of this was the pelican. A widespread story, often illustrated in Bestiaries, related how the pelican fed her starving young with her own blood; this was taken as a metaphor of Christ's sacrifice. The Pelican in her Piety, as this story was called, became a common artistic motif in medieval religious architecture, and in encyclopaedic books. The image here shows the Pelican in her Piety represented in a misericord at St Mary's Abbey, Beverley, in Yorkshire, a famous example of 14th century English Gothic style. She is pecking her own breast to release the blood and feed the chicks. (They weren't shy of graphic images in those days!)

Pelican in her Piety, St Mary's, Beverley. By awmc1 @ flickr
A misericord is a little folding seat in the quire (i.e. choir) area of churches that the monks or canons could lean on during long services. It comes from the Latin for mercy, because allowing a tired singer to sit down was like taking mercy on him! In the medieval period the underneath of misericords, like the one shown here, came to be decorated in marvellous carvings, since this was the part of the seat most often visible to those moving about the church between services. Some had religious images, and others had very surprisingly secular ones, like illustrations from tales of knightly deeds and the rescue of fair maidens, or images of monsters.

3 comments:

Louise G said...

Hi Kathleen, I just have a question about the presentation etc. Will we have tutorial time to work on it in our groups? or is it all outside that time? Thanks and Happy Easter! Louise

medievaleurope said...

Hi Louise,
I don't think there will be enough time to work on this during tutorials - except perhaps quickly to introduce yourselves and make a plan to meet at another time. We're already going to be fairly pressed to get through the material I suspect...
Remember, there's no obligation to do a group presentation. The only thing that needs to be a collaborative decision is how to arrange your blog post.

medievaleurope said...

Hey everyone - a student in one of my other tutes found this awesome documentary online. It might interest you. All four episodes are highly recommended, and might even help you revise for the final test! It's called "Inside the Medieval Mind". You can find it here: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside-the-medieval-mind/