Two capitals at Passirac (Charente)
One is a scene somewhat similar to that at Kirknewton...
- a man grasps a woman's upper thigh and she grasps his huge erection,
while a bearded, human-faced lion attacks the man...
and a bicorporeal, snake-tongued lion paws the woman.
Compare this capital with an interior capital at Santillana del Mar
(Santander)
where a man palpates a woman's breast while she manipulates his enormous
virile member.
(after Cooke and García)
Here are two illustrations of an Italian male exhibitionist at Civita
Castellana threatened by the Beast of Hell,
together with n exhibitionist Adam and Eve and a male Luxuria at St John
Lateran in Rome.
from Valentino Pace: Immagini della sensualità
nel medioevo italiano, 2002
(available on the web)
The other transept capital at Passirac depicts
a man afflicted by concupiscence and being warned by heavenly hornblowers,
like those at Brioude
.
Thirty years later...
photo © Joël
Jalladeau
Compare the above with two corbels at Moulins-sur-Yèvre (Cher)
where one figure sounds the Last Trump in the direction of a sinner being
devoured by the jaws of Hell...
...while at Lasvaux, Martel (Lot), the horn-blower blasts at a (broken)
megaphallic exhibitionist...
..and at Bourbon-l'Archambault (Allier) two hornblowers mounted on rams
direct their blasts towards a devilish figure with raised skirts.
Other capitals in the same church feature heavenly musicians, including
another (bearded) hornblower
who simultaneously plays a harp while seated on a stool.
At Saint-Révérien (Nièvre), the dead arise from sarcophagi
as two angels sound the Last Trump.
But at Oyré (Vienne), the trumpeter simultaneously pulls the long
beard of a sinner.
remerciements à Joël Jalladeau pour les dernières cinq photographies
Compare again with the entertainers at San Martín de Mondoñedo.
Yermo (Cantabria)
Hornblower.jpg)
Santiago de Compostela, Puerta de las Platerías:
Adam and Eve with the Trumpeter of Doom beneath.
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photo by courtesy of ParadoxPlace
A remarkable transept-capital in the Cantabrian church at Villanueva
de la Nía might be a lampoon
like the famous self-fellating bishop on Cologne Cathedral.
shows an important personage flanked by two exhibitionists - one almost
identical to the female on an outside window at nearby Cervatos,
the other a broken ithyphallic male blowing a trumpet into the ear of
the personage,
who stands with palms outstretched and wears a tiara of something resembling
hares' ears
(the hare was a symbol of concupiscence)
or possibly feathers as worn by (concupiscent) jongleurs/joglars - or
a King of Fools.
photos by courtesy of Mark Gredler
Chrism with lovely
and significant decoration - including a horn-blower -
above the doorway at Coll de Nargo (LLeida).
