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Product Description
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The rarest, most recondite and fascinating art book, which is a folklore and magic book as well... An incredibly thorough study, with every example illustrated, of the weird foliate heads or masks found in the medieval churches and cathedrals of Western Europe, with leaves sprouting from them. THE TIMES
Product Description
The Green Man, the image of the foliate head or the head of a man sprouting leaves, is probably the most common of all motifs in medieval sculpture. Nevertheless, the significance of the image lay largely unregarded until Kathleen Basford published this book - the first monograph of the Green Man in any language -and thereby earned the lasting gratitude of scholars in many fields, from art history and folklore to current environmental studies. This book has opened up new avenues of research, not only into medieval man's understanding of nature, and into conceptions of death, rebirth and resurrection in the middle ages, but also into our concern today with ecology and our relationship with the green world. It is therefore a work of living scholarship and its publication in paperback will be greatly and justly welcomed.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A very one sided approach but some great photos,
By
This review is from: The Green Man (Paperback)
If you are looking for a gazetter of Green men not just in England, then this is a great book. It is mainly photos, nicely produced black and white shots, with informative captions about each. Listed are Green Men as far afield as Istanbul, and there are entries for France and Germany too.
The short (14 page) essay at the start does give some useful factual information on early Green Men, where they are and how the images developed in churches through the centuries. Also on how they differed in England and France. However, it is an incrediably one-sided argument. She gives only the Christian viewpoint, indeed perhaps only her Christian view point and totally dimisses any other theories. If you want to learn a little more on other arguments about what is represented by the Green Man, I recommend "The Green Man in Britain" by Geoff and Fran Doel. Poor old Green Man - he get's a bit of a rough deal from Ms. Basford.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A multi faceted and well researched book on an ancient, ambiguous figure,
This review is from: The Green Man (Paperback)
Kathleen Basford's "The Green Man", first published in 1978, remains today one of the best works documenting the many examples of the foliate head that can be found in church buildings throughout England. The collection of over 100 photographs includes a 14 page essay charting the first known appearance of the foliate head in Aurelian's Temple of the Sun in the first century, through the temple of Hatra in Mesopotamia, the male Medusa, the use of the foliate head motif among Mediterrean wine merchants and it's relation to Bacchus, and then onward through it's many appearances in church buildings, which can be traced as far back as between the 4th and 5th Centuries, exploring the links between folklore and the nascent theology of the church in the British Isles along the way. The book also includes a list of bibliographical references and in the acknowledgements the diverse range of people whom Kathleen Basford received assistance from whilst researching the subject. The pictures themselves are striking in stark black and white. We see the many faces of the Green Man, benign, resigned, benovolent, mischevious, anguished, tormented, malicious. Foliate heads, foliate beasts, daemonic foliage, foliate skulls, faces with vines bursting from both eyes and mouth. The gentle, leaf bearded, impassive face that we recognise from the Jack in the Green festivities and the baleful and eerie face leering down from some dark corner of an ancient building, they are all present here. Kathleen Basford best reckons up the Green Man's appeal when she says "The Green Man's story is a long one, with many ramifications and many surprise twists. Much of the story is better told in pictures than in words because we can trace the roots and follow the main growth and the spreading of branches more easily when the theme is presented visually, but best of all is to seek out and meet the Green Man face to face and let him speak for himself."
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews) 19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Groundbreaking Book for Green Man Enthusiasts,
By E. Becker "Cat Herder" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Green Man (Paperback)
This books holds a reputation as one of the seminal publications in modern Green Man research, and rightly so. There is little copy in the book save a few pages in the beginning outlining the myth as understood at the time of publication, but where it speaks most loudly is in the photographs. Beautiful black and white pictures from all over Europe capture the broad variety of ways that the Green Man has been depicted through the centuries.
Green Man fans must own this book! 3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Green Man,
By Arkengareth "Sage" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Green Man (Paperback)
I recently saw green men, on a trip to England, and thought I would learn a little about them and possibly try my hand at chip carving. The Green Man, by Kathleen Basford, was consice, well written, gave history, and many picture plates of dated works. A treasure!
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Green Man by Kathleen Basford,
By carol kulp - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Green Man (Paperback)
There are extremely few books about the history of the Green Man so that gives the book a three star rating right there. The photographs are many and of a good size to appreciate. Would wish for color. The text and text notes are quite thoughtful and informative. It was tedious and somewhat difficult, however, to cross-reference photos to information in the texts, particularly the text notes. Well worth the effort, though.
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