by Mercia MacDermott with photographs by Ruth Wylie
Published by Explore Books
Description
'A friendly and intriguing work of architectural scholarship.'
The Guardian
'The enigmatic silence of the Green Man has been broken in the last decade
by a flood of books, with a new study coming out pretty much every year
since 1990. Most of them were lavisly illustrated, which is just as well,
since much of the commentary was nonsense. [Explore Green Men] features
new photographs from Ruth Wylie's superb archive, and it has a text which
makes sense. Mercia MacDermott comes to this myth-laden territory with
a cool head... '
Jeremy Harte 3rd Stone
Explore Green Men is the first detailed study of the history of this motif
for 25 years. Dr MacDermott's research follows the Green Man back from
the previous earliest known examples into its hitherto unrecognised origins
in India about 2,300 years ago.
The book starts by discussing the 'paganisation' of Green Men in recent
decades, then follows backwards through the Victorian Gothic Revival,
Baroque, Rococco and Italianate revivals, to their heyday in the Gothic
and the supposed origins in the Romanesque. As part of this discussion
there is background information on the cultural changes that affected
how Green Men were regarded. The author also discusses the comparisons
that have been made with Cernunnus, Robin Hood, Jack-in-the-Green, woodwoses,
Baphomet, Al Khidr and Bulgarian peperuda. She also investigates which
pagan god Green Men supposedly represent.
Explore Green Men is illustrated with 110 photographs and drawings, mostly
of Green Men who have never before showed their faces in books.
This book will appeal to all with an interest in Green Men and to art
historians looking for a reliable study of this fascinating decorative
motif.
Published by Explore Books, an imprint of Heart of Albion Press.
ISBN 1 872883 66 4. September 2003.
Demi 8vo (215 x 138 mm), 206 + x pages, 108 b&w photographs, 2 line
drawings, paperback
£9.95
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