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Thousands of people walk past them on Parliament Hill every day, unaware they are being watched by an odd trio of medieval ‘foliage folk.’
They are grotesques – a group of fantastical Gothic Revival figures chiseled into the exterior walls of the Parliament Buildings, their piercing stares and in-your-face expressions fixed forever in sandstone and time: The Wild Green Man with his wide staring eyes and bared teeth, the Foliated Green Man disgorging leafy material from his mouth, and the Horned Green Man sticking his tongue out at the world.
Thanks to a first-time-ever collaboration between the Royal Canadian Mint and the Dominion Sculptor – yes, one does indeed exist – these amazing century-old (and more) carvings have been reinterpreted into amazing pieces of art for the reverse sides of a series of three silver collector coins celebrating the sculptural art of Parliament. The obverse features the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Canadian artist Susanna Blunt.
The first two coins were released in January and April. The final coin of the series (Horned Green Man) is scheduled to be released July 5. The low mintage of only 4,000 coins of each design makes this limited issue especially attractive to serious collectors, but what makes this series unusual and special to everyone is the creative involvement of the man charged since 2006 with the stewardship of the architectural heritage of Canada’s Parliament Buildings – Dominion Sculptor Phil White. He is only the fifth person to hold the office.
The Mint’s product manager, Josh Bednar, said a brainstorming session with his product development team brought forth a discussion on gargoyles, which eventually led to a meeting with White. “He helped us to understand that most of the things we think of as gargoyles are actually not,” Bednar said. (Gargoyles have an architectural purpose, whereas grotesques are purely ornamental.) “We looked at different themes with Phil, and the Green Man series is what we came up with. He knows so much about the history of the architecture and symbolism.”
The Green Man motif is typified by the generous amounts of foliage associated with the images. While it has medieval origins as a symbol of regeneration and respect for nature, the motif itself gained renewed energy during the Gothic Revival of the 18th and 19th centuries.
White viewed the actual stone carvings as well as high-resolution photographs before choosing three images to reinterpret as two-dimensional drawings. Two of the originals appear on the East Block, while the third is on the Centre Block. For his interpretive sketches White arranged the perspectives and figures into a pleasing design to fit the coins. The figure of the Horned Green Man, a long, narrow sculpture, carved around the time of Confederation, required the most amount of modification to fit the circular format for the Mint’s engravers.
Bednar described the experience of working with White as unique. “We take drawings and turn them into coins every day,” he said. “But to be able to have a sculptor talk to an engraver – they speak more or less the same language. He went through the techniques of how the grotesques were cut so the engravers could understand how to interpret the drawings properly.”
A language of detail, apparently. Bednar said the engravers had an extensive discussion with White about how to represent the anonymous stone carvers’ chisel marks on just the background textures for the three coins. “The idea was to reflect the way it would have been done by hand originally in stone,” Bednar said.
At first glance the coins appear to have been engraved by a single person, but a trained eye can pick out the distinct hand of two different engravers: Konrad Wachelko (Wild Green Man), and Steven Stewart (Foliated Green Man and Horned Green Man) interpreted White’s designs into the stunning, ultra-high relief, 99.99% pure silver collector coins that are now on sale for only $149.95 each by the Mint through www.mint.ca.
“Architectural sculpture is intended to jump out at you,” White said. “The Gothic Revival movement was a whole different way of looking at craftsmanship and expressing joy for the work. The designs I did are inspired by what you’ll see on the sides of the buildings, but they’re not exact copies.”
White described his official responsibility as a combination of conserving the artistic heritage of the Parliament Buildings, and adding to the buildings in a respectful way. Uncarved stone blocks await the successive generations of carvers and sculptors who will continue to write the history of Canada on its walls.
“The Centre Block is an unfinished canvas,” White said. “I hope it always will be. These buildings are a wonderful architectural treasure on a world scale, and promoting their artistic heritage through these coins from the Royal Canadian Mint is a fantastic thing.”
Own a unique part of Canada’s history with these stunning historical works of art. The coins make a unique gift or fine addition to any collection featuring Canadian, historical, artistic, or political themes, and can be purchased through www.mint.ca.
The architectural artwork of Parliament
The buildings that make up Parliament Hill represent some of the world’s most important examples of the Gothic Revival architectural style. The Centre Block, East Block, and West Block combine elements of this style, born in Medieval Europe, in a way that is uniquely Canadian – applying Canadian imagery and materials to the Gothic form’s characteristic buttresses, pointed archways, and extensive stonework.
Canadians might be surprised to learn that there are thousands of works of carving and sculpture in and on the Parliament Buildings (about 3000 on the exteriors alone). This work includes sculptures of mythical animals and Canadian flora and fauna; decorative and ornamental carvings on doors, spandrels, and panels of stone and wood; wrought iron figures, finials, and grates; coats of arms and badges; high- and low-relief panels depicting historical figures and events (including a 16-panel frieze exploring 25,000 years in the history of the Canadian landmass and nation); busts, statuary, and likenesses; elaborately decorated vault ceilings; stunning stained glass works; and untold numbers of carved maple leaves.
The buildings also feature hundreds of grotesques, or carved fantastical ornamental figures, in wood and stone – a key feature of Gothic Revival architecture. One of the most common motifs for these decorative carvings is the Green Man, a figure found not only in medieval architecture but also on the structures of earlier civilizations in the Middle East, India, and Asia. Generally comprising a man’s face made of or appearing within dense foliage, the Green Man motif is said to symbolize annual and seasonal cycles and, more broadly, the notions of growth, rebirth, and resurrection. In the Gothic Revival context, these carved figures are often presented with ominous or humorous overtones.
The design for the grotesque of the Wild Green Man figure was found on the East Block of Parliament Hill. The wild, hairy, and mysterious Wild Man is a closely linked figure, also drawn from pre-Christian European mythology.
The grotesque of Foliated Green Man figure is also found on the East Block of Parliament Hill. Its inherent wildness and possible origins in pre-Christian mythology also lent it a pagan flavour that could be exploited in different ways depending on the application. On churches, for example, the figure could warn against natural temptations. On the wall of a pub, it could serve as a bacchanalian invitation. In this period, highly stylized high-relief “stiff-leaf” foliage also dominated architectural carving. The foliate male face disgorging stiff-leaf foliage from mouth, ears, even tear ducts, was thus a common form for the Green Man in the early Gothic period.
The variation of the Horned Green Man is much more common on North American Gothic Revival structures than on their European counterparts. Their horned projections vary from short or long straight horns and curled ram’s horns to antlers and even large tree branches emerging from the Green Man’s forehead. The source of this imagery may lie with pre-Christian nature deities such as the Celts’ Cernunnos, the Greeks’ Pan, and the Egyptian goddess Hathor, but one should not discount the role of the carver’s sense of humour or delight in the macabre. The horned Green Man’s popularity seems to have grown in tandem with Victorians’ rising preoccupation with the occult, which is perhaps not surprising given that the horned man or horned god has long been associated with supernatural power.
Did you know?
• Historians have proposed some intriguing theories about the sharp rise in popularity of the Green Man motif in Gothic architecture. Some point to the figure’s linkages to Middle Eastern mythology. The Sufi deity, Khidr, for instance was associated with artistic inspiration and would have been an attractive subject for carvers and sculptors. Similar figures are also found in Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman, and other traditions. Mythological cross-over may have been a natural by-product of cultural exposure that began with the rise of the Knights Templar and European incursions into the Middle East during the Middle Ages.
• Though horned Green Men are less common in classic Gothic ornamentation, horned demonic grotesques and gargoyles did become common in the Medieval period. Some researchers connect this darker imagery with the rise of the Black Plague, which cast a long shadow over humanity’s relationship with the natural world.
• Hidden among the hundreds of carvings in the Parliament Buildings are unicorns and dragons; whimsical likenesses such as those of Thomas Fuller, the original architect of the first Centre Block, and John A. Pearson, who designed its replacement after it was gutted by fire on Feb. 3, 1916; senatorial owls wearing wigs and holding shields; snarling gargoyles and chimeras; dinosaurs; winding telecommunications cables; figures from First Nations mythology; a senator playing golf; a three-tongued Member of Parliament giving a speech; a face with its finger before its mouth warning MPs to guard their secrets; and much more.
• For much of Parliament’s history, the Parliamentary carving shop was located in the basement of the Senate Chamber (Centre Block). Masons and carvers would work on site in summer when Parliament was not sitting, or at night—a work environment rife with irregularity and interruption. Eventually, the shop was relocated off site so that workers could retain regular working hours and work in natural light.
• The Centre Block’s carving work began in 1916 and is still underway. About 170 stone blocks included in the building’s original design have yet to be carved. The Canadian Parliament Buildings are the only North American federal government structures that still host this kind of full-time carving work beyond ongoing restoration.
• Canada has had five official state sculptors (known as the Federal Government Sculptor or the Dominion Sculptor), who are tasked with completing interior and exterior décor, restoration, and preservation of the Parliament Buildings: Cléophas Soucy (1936-1949), William Oosterhoff (1950-1962), Eleanor Milne (1962-1993), Maurice Joanisse (1993-2006), and Phil White (2006-present).
• In the 1990s, Dominion Sculptor Maurice Joanisse undertook the sizeable task of cataloguing every work of art on the exterior of the East, West, and Centre Blocks. He photographed and listed the condition, measurements, and history of each of these works. Some were in such poor repair that he was forced to stop his cataloguing process and fix them immediately. He ultimately compiled a database of more than 3,000 works on the exteriors of the buildings alone.
The Royal Canadian Mint
In January 1908, Governor General Earl Grey struck Canada’s first domestically produced coin, a 50-cent piece, to officially open the Ottawa facility of the Royal Canadian Mint on Sussex Drive. This manufacturing facility continues to operate, and is today responsible for producing collector and bullion coins, refining gold and silver, and handcrafting medals for Canada’s military and the Governor General of Canada awards like the Order of Canada. The Mint was first opened as a Canadian branch of Britain’s Royal Mint until 1931, when it was turned over to the Canadian Government. Only then did it become “The Royal Canadian Mint.”
Canadian Circulation coins were produced in Ottawa until the mid-1970s, when coin demand began to exceed manufacturing capacity. In April 1976, the Mint’s Winnipeg facility was opened to assume all of Canada’s circulation coin production, as well as to supply a growing list of international customers. Since 1976, Winnipeg has produced circulation coins and blanks (unstruck coins) for more than 75 different countries.
The global coin manufacturing industry recognizes the Royal Canadian Mint as a leader in technological innovation. Through research and development, the Mint has achieved many world firsts such as multi-ply plated steel technology (now used by 33 other countries), colouring circulation coins, starting with the 25-cent Poppy coin in 2004, and producing the 100-kilo 99.999% pure gold “Million Dollar Coin” in 2007. The Mint continued to break new ground with innovations such as the dramatic Vancouver 2010 Winter Games athlete medals, new security features for high-value circulation coins and the Gold and Silver Maple Leaf bullion coins, and a new high-resolution method for colouring circulation coins, first appearing on the 25-cent coin celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Canadian flag in 2015. The Mint has also used this technique to produce coloured circulation coins for different countries around the world.
Coin Certificate Text (general)
The Coin: This $25 coin is 99.99% pure silver, with a diameter of 36 millimetres and a nominal metal weight of 30.75 grams. Engraved in ultra-high relief, the coin features an original depiction by Dominion Sculptor Phil White of a Gothic-style grotesque inspired by a carving found on the Parliament Buildings. The obverse features the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt.
Sources
Varner, Gary R. The Mythic Forest, the Green Man and the Spirit of Nature – The Re-Emergence of the Spirit of Nature from Ancient Times into Modern Society. Algora Publishing, New York: 2006
http://www.greenmanenigma.com/theories.html
http://www.druidry.org/library/gods-goddesses/cernnunos-ancient-celtic-god
https://ericwedwards.wordpress.com/2014/02/22/the-green-man/
This story was produced by Postmedia Content Works on behalf of the Royal Canadian Mint for commercial purposes. Postmedia’s editorial departments had no involvement in the creation of this content.
查看原文...
Thousands of people walk past them on Parliament Hill every day, unaware they are being watched by an odd trio of medieval ‘foliage folk.’
They are grotesques – a group of fantastical Gothic Revival figures chiseled into the exterior walls of the Parliament Buildings, their piercing stares and in-your-face expressions fixed forever in sandstone and time: The Wild Green Man with his wide staring eyes and bared teeth, the Foliated Green Man disgorging leafy material from his mouth, and the Horned Green Man sticking his tongue out at the world.
Thanks to a first-time-ever collaboration between the Royal Canadian Mint and the Dominion Sculptor – yes, one does indeed exist – these amazing century-old (and more) carvings have been reinterpreted into amazing pieces of art for the reverse sides of a series of three silver collector coins celebrating the sculptural art of Parliament. The obverse features the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Canadian artist Susanna Blunt.
The first two coins were released in January and April. The final coin of the series (Horned Green Man) is scheduled to be released July 5. The low mintage of only 4,000 coins of each design makes this limited issue especially attractive to serious collectors, but what makes this series unusual and special to everyone is the creative involvement of the man charged since 2006 with the stewardship of the architectural heritage of Canada’s Parliament Buildings – Dominion Sculptor Phil White. He is only the fifth person to hold the office.
The Mint’s product manager, Josh Bednar, said a brainstorming session with his product development team brought forth a discussion on gargoyles, which eventually led to a meeting with White. “He helped us to understand that most of the things we think of as gargoyles are actually not,” Bednar said. (Gargoyles have an architectural purpose, whereas grotesques are purely ornamental.) “We looked at different themes with Phil, and the Green Man series is what we came up with. He knows so much about the history of the architecture and symbolism.”
The Green Man motif is typified by the generous amounts of foliage associated with the images. While it has medieval origins as a symbol of regeneration and respect for nature, the motif itself gained renewed energy during the Gothic Revival of the 18th and 19th centuries.
White viewed the actual stone carvings as well as high-resolution photographs before choosing three images to reinterpret as two-dimensional drawings. Two of the originals appear on the East Block, while the third is on the Centre Block. For his interpretive sketches White arranged the perspectives and figures into a pleasing design to fit the coins. The figure of the Horned Green Man, a long, narrow sculpture, carved around the time of Confederation, required the most amount of modification to fit the circular format for the Mint’s engravers.
Bednar described the experience of working with White as unique. “We take drawings and turn them into coins every day,” he said. “But to be able to have a sculptor talk to an engraver – they speak more or less the same language. He went through the techniques of how the grotesques were cut so the engravers could understand how to interpret the drawings properly.”
A language of detail, apparently. Bednar said the engravers had an extensive discussion with White about how to represent the anonymous stone carvers’ chisel marks on just the background textures for the three coins. “The idea was to reflect the way it would have been done by hand originally in stone,” Bednar said.
At first glance the coins appear to have been engraved by a single person, but a trained eye can pick out the distinct hand of two different engravers: Konrad Wachelko (Wild Green Man), and Steven Stewart (Foliated Green Man and Horned Green Man) interpreted White’s designs into the stunning, ultra-high relief, 99.99% pure silver collector coins that are now on sale for only $149.95 each by the Mint through www.mint.ca.
“Architectural sculpture is intended to jump out at you,” White said. “The Gothic Revival movement was a whole different way of looking at craftsmanship and expressing joy for the work. The designs I did are inspired by what you’ll see on the sides of the buildings, but they’re not exact copies.”
White described his official responsibility as a combination of conserving the artistic heritage of the Parliament Buildings, and adding to the buildings in a respectful way. Uncarved stone blocks await the successive generations of carvers and sculptors who will continue to write the history of Canada on its walls.
“The Centre Block is an unfinished canvas,” White said. “I hope it always will be. These buildings are a wonderful architectural treasure on a world scale, and promoting their artistic heritage through these coins from the Royal Canadian Mint is a fantastic thing.”
Own a unique part of Canada’s history with these stunning historical works of art. The coins make a unique gift or fine addition to any collection featuring Canadian, historical, artistic, or political themes, and can be purchased through www.mint.ca.
The architectural artwork of Parliament
The buildings that make up Parliament Hill represent some of the world’s most important examples of the Gothic Revival architectural style. The Centre Block, East Block, and West Block combine elements of this style, born in Medieval Europe, in a way that is uniquely Canadian – applying Canadian imagery and materials to the Gothic form’s characteristic buttresses, pointed archways, and extensive stonework.
Canadians might be surprised to learn that there are thousands of works of carving and sculpture in and on the Parliament Buildings (about 3000 on the exteriors alone). This work includes sculptures of mythical animals and Canadian flora and fauna; decorative and ornamental carvings on doors, spandrels, and panels of stone and wood; wrought iron figures, finials, and grates; coats of arms and badges; high- and low-relief panels depicting historical figures and events (including a 16-panel frieze exploring 25,000 years in the history of the Canadian landmass and nation); busts, statuary, and likenesses; elaborately decorated vault ceilings; stunning stained glass works; and untold numbers of carved maple leaves.
The buildings also feature hundreds of grotesques, or carved fantastical ornamental figures, in wood and stone – a key feature of Gothic Revival architecture. One of the most common motifs for these decorative carvings is the Green Man, a figure found not only in medieval architecture but also on the structures of earlier civilizations in the Middle East, India, and Asia. Generally comprising a man’s face made of or appearing within dense foliage, the Green Man motif is said to symbolize annual and seasonal cycles and, more broadly, the notions of growth, rebirth, and resurrection. In the Gothic Revival context, these carved figures are often presented with ominous or humorous overtones.
The design for the grotesque of the Wild Green Man figure was found on the East Block of Parliament Hill. The wild, hairy, and mysterious Wild Man is a closely linked figure, also drawn from pre-Christian European mythology.
The grotesque of Foliated Green Man figure is also found on the East Block of Parliament Hill. Its inherent wildness and possible origins in pre-Christian mythology also lent it a pagan flavour that could be exploited in different ways depending on the application. On churches, for example, the figure could warn against natural temptations. On the wall of a pub, it could serve as a bacchanalian invitation. In this period, highly stylized high-relief “stiff-leaf” foliage also dominated architectural carving. The foliate male face disgorging stiff-leaf foliage from mouth, ears, even tear ducts, was thus a common form for the Green Man in the early Gothic period.
The variation of the Horned Green Man is much more common on North American Gothic Revival structures than on their European counterparts. Their horned projections vary from short or long straight horns and curled ram’s horns to antlers and even large tree branches emerging from the Green Man’s forehead. The source of this imagery may lie with pre-Christian nature deities such as the Celts’ Cernunnos, the Greeks’ Pan, and the Egyptian goddess Hathor, but one should not discount the role of the carver’s sense of humour or delight in the macabre. The horned Green Man’s popularity seems to have grown in tandem with Victorians’ rising preoccupation with the occult, which is perhaps not surprising given that the horned man or horned god has long been associated with supernatural power.
Did you know?
• Historians have proposed some intriguing theories about the sharp rise in popularity of the Green Man motif in Gothic architecture. Some point to the figure’s linkages to Middle Eastern mythology. The Sufi deity, Khidr, for instance was associated with artistic inspiration and would have been an attractive subject for carvers and sculptors. Similar figures are also found in Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman, and other traditions. Mythological cross-over may have been a natural by-product of cultural exposure that began with the rise of the Knights Templar and European incursions into the Middle East during the Middle Ages.
• Though horned Green Men are less common in classic Gothic ornamentation, horned demonic grotesques and gargoyles did become common in the Medieval period. Some researchers connect this darker imagery with the rise of the Black Plague, which cast a long shadow over humanity’s relationship with the natural world.
• Hidden among the hundreds of carvings in the Parliament Buildings are unicorns and dragons; whimsical likenesses such as those of Thomas Fuller, the original architect of the first Centre Block, and John A. Pearson, who designed its replacement after it was gutted by fire on Feb. 3, 1916; senatorial owls wearing wigs and holding shields; snarling gargoyles and chimeras; dinosaurs; winding telecommunications cables; figures from First Nations mythology; a senator playing golf; a three-tongued Member of Parliament giving a speech; a face with its finger before its mouth warning MPs to guard their secrets; and much more.
• For much of Parliament’s history, the Parliamentary carving shop was located in the basement of the Senate Chamber (Centre Block). Masons and carvers would work on site in summer when Parliament was not sitting, or at night—a work environment rife with irregularity and interruption. Eventually, the shop was relocated off site so that workers could retain regular working hours and work in natural light.
• The Centre Block’s carving work began in 1916 and is still underway. About 170 stone blocks included in the building’s original design have yet to be carved. The Canadian Parliament Buildings are the only North American federal government structures that still host this kind of full-time carving work beyond ongoing restoration.
• Canada has had five official state sculptors (known as the Federal Government Sculptor or the Dominion Sculptor), who are tasked with completing interior and exterior décor, restoration, and preservation of the Parliament Buildings: Cléophas Soucy (1936-1949), William Oosterhoff (1950-1962), Eleanor Milne (1962-1993), Maurice Joanisse (1993-2006), and Phil White (2006-present).
• In the 1990s, Dominion Sculptor Maurice Joanisse undertook the sizeable task of cataloguing every work of art on the exterior of the East, West, and Centre Blocks. He photographed and listed the condition, measurements, and history of each of these works. Some were in such poor repair that he was forced to stop his cataloguing process and fix them immediately. He ultimately compiled a database of more than 3,000 works on the exteriors of the buildings alone.
The Royal Canadian Mint
In January 1908, Governor General Earl Grey struck Canada’s first domestically produced coin, a 50-cent piece, to officially open the Ottawa facility of the Royal Canadian Mint on Sussex Drive. This manufacturing facility continues to operate, and is today responsible for producing collector and bullion coins, refining gold and silver, and handcrafting medals for Canada’s military and the Governor General of Canada awards like the Order of Canada. The Mint was first opened as a Canadian branch of Britain’s Royal Mint until 1931, when it was turned over to the Canadian Government. Only then did it become “The Royal Canadian Mint.”
Canadian Circulation coins were produced in Ottawa until the mid-1970s, when coin demand began to exceed manufacturing capacity. In April 1976, the Mint’s Winnipeg facility was opened to assume all of Canada’s circulation coin production, as well as to supply a growing list of international customers. Since 1976, Winnipeg has produced circulation coins and blanks (unstruck coins) for more than 75 different countries.
The global coin manufacturing industry recognizes the Royal Canadian Mint as a leader in technological innovation. Through research and development, the Mint has achieved many world firsts such as multi-ply plated steel technology (now used by 33 other countries), colouring circulation coins, starting with the 25-cent Poppy coin in 2004, and producing the 100-kilo 99.999% pure gold “Million Dollar Coin” in 2007. The Mint continued to break new ground with innovations such as the dramatic Vancouver 2010 Winter Games athlete medals, new security features for high-value circulation coins and the Gold and Silver Maple Leaf bullion coins, and a new high-resolution method for colouring circulation coins, first appearing on the 25-cent coin celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Canadian flag in 2015. The Mint has also used this technique to produce coloured circulation coins for different countries around the world.
Coin Certificate Text (general)
The Coin: This $25 coin is 99.99% pure silver, with a diameter of 36 millimetres and a nominal metal weight of 30.75 grams. Engraved in ultra-high relief, the coin features an original depiction by Dominion Sculptor Phil White of a Gothic-style grotesque inspired by a carving found on the Parliament Buildings. The obverse features the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt.
Sources
Varner, Gary R. The Mythic Forest, the Green Man and the Spirit of Nature – The Re-Emergence of the Spirit of Nature from Ancient Times into Modern Society. Algora Publishing, New York: 2006
http://www.greenmanenigma.com/theories.html
http://www.druidry.org/library/gods-goddesses/cernnunos-ancient-celtic-god
https://ericwedwards.wordpress.com/2014/02/22/the-green-man/
This story was produced by Postmedia Content Works on behalf of the Royal Canadian Mint for commercial purposes. Postmedia’s editorial departments had no involvement in the creation of this content.
查看原文...
