Early Medieval and Romanesque

 In the French church Saitn Pierre de Chauvigny  have sculptures of dragon like creatures devouring people who are considered sinners. It was built in the late Romanesque time and so it has some gothic elements to it. It has pointed arches and a bell tower. It was painted red and white later in 1856. The red and white is what surprised me when I was hunting for a church to research, too bad it was not the original idea. I think the red over white adds to the disturbing imagery. It defiently has that shock value to persuade people not to sin and to grab a hold of their attention.

Annuciation

    All of the capitals to their columns have human and animal figures decorating it. Not only do they have dragons but also Sphinxes ( I guess they show up everywhere). more mythological creatures are present, like the manticore (half lion humans), sirens but, they have bibliocal scenes as well;like Anunciation, Adoration of the Magi, Presentation of Christ, Temptation of Christ and Satan with demons. A lot of mixing of religon and another factor seems to be repeated in other churches, like the one with the zodiac symbols around sculptures of Christ.

                                                                   Exterior

                                                Satan and Demons

                                                 Sphinxes and Manticore.


This type of style in the sculptures makes me think of a combination of cultures we have learned. For one I think of India because of the figures surround a space and tell a story about religion and myths. Sphinxes and other creatures are used just like Ancinet Near East, and Greek. The exaggerated hands in the Annuciation reminds me of Etruscan art(the figures of people playing instruments) and Roman art( the statue of a leader). since we learned that most people during this time were illiterate it makes sense that they made the sculptures have dramatic expressions...they get the message across. I still think the dragon devouring the sinner is creepy...its like the painting by Goya with Saturn devouring his son.