(From the last post)
Empty: I like the mechanical animal face on the black part near the top of
the picture. A baboon, perhaps?
Siganus Sutor: Darth Vader unmasked, I’d say.
Marie-Lucie: The eyes do look simian. You can’t really see Darth Vader’s eyes.
Empty: To me there is a snout. I first thought dog, or stylized image of
dog-faced deity. Then I thought dog-faced baboon.
A Bad Guide 
Empty: Then I thought dog-faced baboon
In a sense this is a “pleonasm”, as it is sometimes said, since a baboons is a cynocephal (cynocephalus), meaning “dog head”.
WP says that cynocephalus is but one of the five species of baboon. One of the others is the hamadryad baboon. If this is one of those, that would explain the worried look in its eyes. What a hellish existence for a hamadryad, to be always a party to the violent felling of trees!
It looks a bit Polynesian.
A head, you say? I’m cephalocynic, I don’t care.
Empty, “cynocephal” was an ancient name for the dog-headed monkeys (e.g. those who were sacred animals in Egypt), in French at least.
In our case there is something amusing with the etymology of “baboon”: from Fr. babouin “baboon,” from O. Fr. baboin “ape,” earlier “simpleton, dimwit, fool” (13c.), also “gaping figure (such as a gargoyle),” so probably from O. Fr. baboue “grimacing” — http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=baboon
Maybe that’s a dog clutch or dog coupling. It apparently barks a warning when a tree is about to fall.
It would be a pleonasm to say “a dog-faced cynocephalus”, because the two words mean about the same, but “a dog-faced baboon” is not one, because the word “baboon” does not mean “dog-faced” or “dog-headed”, even though the animal referred to might be thus described.
To me it looks like the “Hear no evil” monkey. It looks as if it’s got its fingers in its ears.
Ah, a barking machine!
It would be a pleonasm to say “a dog-faced cynocephalus”, because the two words mean about the same
But it wouldn’t be a pleonasm to call someone a pig-headed pig-faced no-count fool.
From this it appears that the species once worshipped in Egypt is the one that ended up being called “hamadryad” by taxonomists. A sad mix-up, perhaps, but they all look about equally dog-faced to me anyway.
“gaping figure (such as a gargoyle),”
My Nth cousin by marriage, an art historian, has often expressed a wish to photograph me and make a slide to use in her teaching. She wants to use my face to show the students that certain fantastic-looking stone carvings in medieval churches do in fact look like real people. I tend to misremember this as “she says I look like a gargoyle”, but then she always corrects me.
How would she know? Is she that old? More likely she wants to show the students that certain people look like stone carvings in medieval churches.
I could never trust a person who said I look like a gargoyle, Empty.
Not even an art historian? Is there no one that can be trusted?
There are curious associations here: “gaping”, “void”, “empty”. Maybe she means that you have expressionless features? Perhaps a mien of timeless neutrality, looking on mankind?
“Never trust an art historian”, I learnt that from my grandfather.
I’m going to have to get back to you about this, after I get a look at some of these stone faces.
Crown, good point about the medieval, I mean cynoeval, I mean see no evil, I mean hear no evil.
My cousin says:
God no, not a gargoyle at all, but a prophet with an elegant elongated head and beard, a brow slightly furrowed by thought and a poignant, thoughtful gaze. When we have our family supper one Saturday evening this winter I will bring the book that has the best comparisons. But you should say you remind me of “a Gothic column-figure of a prophet” and nothing less.
So that clears that up. The reality, I think, is twofold: I have a beard that sometimes gets out of control, and I have a trick of hiding my inner “see-no-evil” monkey behind what looks like a poignant, thoughtful gaze.
Let us meditate on the similarities and differences between baboons and prophets.
If I correctly understand your description of yourself, then we must also meditate on baboons peering out from inside their prophet-vehicles. A little like the piggyback pair in Mad Max.
Okay, as long as you’re satisfied.
Look, if I google “Gothic column-figure of a prophet” , this is what comes up first: a figure at Saint-Denis. It’s very respectable, built by the Abbé Suger, it’s actually made at the very dawn of Gothic architecture. Just notice he’s wearing a dress and has no nose.
I found this, also from St Denis. You have to scroll down. A prophet, again somewhat unnosed, and with a very difficult-to-read look in his eyes.
We call that look goitre. Is she trying to tell you that you may have a thyroid problem? She should really stop beating around the bush.
There are some very nice column statues at the doorway on the West front of Chartres. This must be the kind of thing she means. I think it’s acceptable. Good, in fact. No nasal problems.
If I correctly understand your description of yourself
Meaning empty’s description of himself
It’s very respectable, built by the Abbé Suger, it’s actually made at the very dawn of Gothic architecture.
Gothic architecture was developed in Ile-de-France from c. 1150, jumped the channel to Canterbury in c. 1170, was brought to Trondheim by archbishop Eystein in c. 1180 after his exile in England, and was used to build a doorway at Sakshaug kirke before 1184 (photo of the doorway with the interiors, link on the page). Then it took the world.
Nidarosdomen in Trondheim is impressive. Why aren’t there any late gothic buildings in Norway, Trond? Not revival, I mean that there are gothic buildings in Britain from the early 16th Century, but there’s no Norwegian equivalent to ‘Perpendicular’, as far as I know.
Nidarosdomen in Trondheim is impressive.
But its present appearance is largely a result of 19th-20th century reconstruction.
Why aren’t there any late gothic buildings in Norway, Trond?
Public building in Norway all but ended with the black death and the Union of Kalmar.
But its present appearance is largely a result of 19th-20th century reconstruction.
Although there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s possibly a bit over-restored. I’m not crazy about the roof tile in the photo of Sakshaug gamle kirke, either.
I had no idea the Trondheim cathedral was so impressive (no matter what you think personally of Saint Olaf). It reminds me somehow of the cathedral at Bath.
Nidarosdomen in Trondheim is impressive.
Wow, it sure is. I feel half my heart swell with pride. Ja vi elsker!
Public building in Norway all but ended with the black death and the Union of Kalmar.
Again, wow. I had no idea. When did it restart?
Again, wow. I had no idea. When did it restart?
Gradually, as economy and population recovered. There was a new boost in public building, mainly for administration and defence, following the Lutheran Reformation and the accumulation of royal power.
Traditional nationalist history, at least of the simplified type one used to find in schoolbooks, says that Norway gradually sank into oblivion in the union, and that the loss of an archbishop independent of the king was the final blow, a blow it would take 300 more years to rise from and clam independence. I see it differently. Norway was empoverished and the boost of investment following the royal rule was the beginning of the recovery. In the centuries after the Reformation Norway grew faster than Denmark, both in economy and population. And the Norwegian independence in 1814 was not much of a ppular demand. It was a plot by the Danish government and the Norwegian danified elite to twist the country from the Swedes after having to give it away in the piece treaty of Kiel. (The Danish Crown Prince Christian Frederik was made king of Norway by the independence movement.)
Thanks very much — that’s an extremely interesting take on history.