Boring . . . more Green Men

You will probably all be saying, but before leaving the subject altogether, I hope that Ragged Robin doesn't mind me sharing her comment, before making my own: 

A very interesting carving. I've looked at my latest edition of Pevsner to see what he says as to me it does not look like a "Green Man" or as they are called these days a foliated head. Pevsner calls it "a grotesque feline head with two dragons emanating from the mouth" which "is related to the Herefordshire School". Malcolm Thurlby, expert on the School says it is "a feline head with two dragons spewing from the mouth to either side of the head". He compares it to one of the dragons at Shobdon Arches. He also says that "The Bridge Sollers sculpture is not of the same high quality as Shobdon and Kilpeck and probably represents the work of a lesser hand, possibly an apprentice from the cathedral workshop". Hope this information is of use.

Now this is my "Green Man" - the nearest I can get to it is something similar carved into a cupboard that belonged to Ann of Cleves, at her home in Kent.  Nothing human in that head at all - but you can just see there are oak leaves around its mouth, close up below:

You can just make out the similarity to the carving in the cupboard.

Having done a little research, I am inclined to think that this carving may in a way have been a prototype for the foliated head which we now associate with the title Green Man. 

This is the one at Garway, which I believe has several similarities to the Bridge Sollars carving below, except here we have more than a step towards "foliation".    The two churches are about twenty miles apart so it is possible/likely that the same mason may have been involved, or one inspired the other.  Note, this doesn't look very leafy . . .  Thanks to Herefordshire Travel Guide for the photograph, though I hope to get there this weekend.

Above - here is another chap with ears, and more of a foliate sprouting from the mouth.  This is a tympanum at Dumbleton, Gloucestershire - heavily restored in the 19th C - but showing those ears again. Note also the lightly drawn border to this, reminiscent of the lightly drawn dog's tooth pattern at Bridge Sollers.  Thank you Creative Commons for allowing me to share.  

Thanks to DG Hoosen, at Flickr.com

At Kilpeck, whilst the face doesn't have ears, it is quite a bestial face, and very similar to the one at Leominster Priory.  Reminds me of a fish with Dennis Healey's eyebrows!

There are other animals from which spew forth branches - the Tree of Life one wonders - and the tympanum at Llanbadarn Fawr (which I so NEARLY went in search of yesterday but didn't because I had daps on and not trainers) shows the tree sprouting out of a "cat's" head as well as emanating from/being attacked by monsters - some 34 miles between that church and Bridge Sollers, by modern road. 

At Lullington in Somerset the 12th C font has a feline head again, with foliage sprouting from its mouth.

At Sampford Courtenay in Devon, there is a dragon devouring its own tail, which has developed into a vine.

Perhaps the earlier carvings had a more animal basis, which gradually in the later Medieval became a human face.  We know that there was influence from Oliver de Merlimond, who worked extensively at Shobdon, and who was influenced by his visit to Santiago de Compostella and the iconography there.  Who can say where else ideas came from?

Right, I'll shut up now.