Haddington » Green Man
The construction of the cornice can been seen from this image. The cornice is a channel (almost like a pipe cut in half along its’ length) into which carvings called mouldings are inserted. In the Perpendicular Style, as at Haddington, the mouldings are regularly spaced with hollows in between the mouldings.
In the centre of this image we can see a Green Man. This Green Man is unusual in that foliage sprouts only from one side of his mouth. Normally foliage grows from both sides and, as we have seen previously, showing this in one square moulding would be difficult to achieve. Is this Green Man a compromise - made to fit?
An alternative might be that this carving is out of position. We know from elsewhere (at St Giles for example) Green Men appear to have been used as a ‘full stop’ (or period) when a line of carvings terminated at a blank wall or where the capital of a pillar met a wall. This is consistent with the Medieval symbolism of the Green Man which, in representing the never ending Christian cycle of birth, life, death and resurrection, would be part of an architectural element which had no beginning and no end - such as a cornice that runs around, without interruption, a church. However, when such decorative elements had to terminate because of practical physical considerations, or perhaps even due to poor planning, then some device required to be used as a ‘full stop’. It will be noticed that the Green Man, above, as at a joint in the cornice and suggests that this ‘full stop’ is out of place. Notice also the head of a pig which appears elsewhere in the church.
To see a Green Man, at St Giles, which has marked similarities which this one click here.
