Wrought iron has produced some of the most beautiful architectural classic pieces around… from tiny escutcheons to the gorgeous Medusa head knocker, wrought iron has a specific look and feel that modern metal does not reproduce.
We may have discovered the origins of nose piercing, in this door knocker at
This brass door knocker in the shape of a nose dates back to the twelfth century, when there were no celebrities with nose piercing, and the actual process would have been painful, unhygienic, and most likely involved a needle made from the bone of an animal, rather than beautiful shiny surgical steel…
While the actual shape of the knocker is more like an abstract, imaginary nose than a realistic one, it was definitely created to look like a nose. The shaping of it is likely a representation of the limitations of brass working at that time of history. We know that the nose is intended to be the college symbol firstly because of its name, which means ‘Brazen Nose’ in a pidgin form of English. We also know this for the fact that there are nose ornaments over several of the main doors, a carved nose in the Archives which was once attached to the college Eight, a tie pin from the college in the 1870s made in the shape of a nose, and the characteristic nose-shaped pipes smoked by Brasenose undergraduates in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
All this focus on noses, though, begs the question … why?!! The nose is hardly a symbol of intellect and gentility – more of animal instincts and disease! We can only wonder, perhaps assuming that it represents having a nose for knowledge or something similar.
And also hope that the ring protruding from the nostrils is not allowed to become slimy, for the unsuspecting knockers… !
Photo credits: Wikimedia
At least part of the reason that you can find so many beautiful, ornate, handmade and gorgeous decorative lamps, lights and fixtures is the symbolism of light to cultures all over the world. Light is one of those wonderful nouns with a meaning well beyond it’s dictionary meaning – and rare among these words and concepts in that the feelings it conjures for people cross many cultural boundaries. It is a scientific phenomena that creates all sorts of feelings for us, from sleepiness, to comfort, to romanticism, to an occasional terror in its absence. Lights are made from fire, one of the basic elements, along with earth, air and water, and light is essential to life on earth. While Gollum may have survived in a cave, living on lichen, without light most of the plants on Earth could not photosynthesize, the animals would have nothing to eat, and neither would we. Light is justified in being revered, and thought of as a symbol for divinity and spirituality, and having gorgeous homes created for it, because without it, there would be no ‘us’! Different cultures have expressed their reverence of light in varying, fascinating ways.
Primitive religions worship light as it is, without using it as a prop for another being which is easier for humans to relate to (God, Yahweh, Allah). This worship continues in at least two of the major religions still found today – Zoroastrians, based in the Indian subcontinent, worship Ahura-Mazda, the eternal principle of life and righteousness. In Parsi, the Zoroastrian religion, fire, along with air and water, is a sacred element. Among other things, this means that they do not cremate their dead, as the dead are supposed to defile the sacred element. In religions such as Buddhism and Brahmanism, the ultimate aim of religious practice is enlightenment – having a light to be able to see things as they truly are. Darkness is equated with confusion, delusion, ignorance … but not bliss!
What a gorgeous, different, outstanding door knocker! It was created by a French sculptor, Emile-Antoine Bourdelle early in the 1900s. Bourdelle believed that history’s best sculptures were those that were integrated with architecture – he would fit right in as a staff sculptor at Architectural Classics!
He was born in 1861, and created the Medusa head sculpture four years before his death in 1925 – when his talent had already had a lifetime to fully develop. He was known as an expressionist artist, but his not-strictly-realistic work did not come from a lack of ability in detail. Medusa, as well as his other sculptures, are created with beautiful lifelike lines, and the Medusa head-knocker has such a striking, gravity-defying appearance. Rodin, who created the sculpture The Thinker, became an admirer of Bourdelle’s, and Bourdelle became his assistant when he was young. A street is named after him in Paris, and he was interred at Paris’s famous Montparnasse cemetery.
It is actually meant to be Perseus’s hand from which Medusa’s severed head hangs. The Greek myth is quite heart-wrenching, for an imaginary story! Medusa was once a beautiful nymph, but was raped by Poseidon in Athena’s temple … the goddess turned her hair into snakes, and made her face so frightening to behold that the mere sight of it would turn men to stone. Medusa was pregnant with Poseidon’s child when the King of Seriphus, Polydectes, sent Perseus to behead her in her sleep. He needs several magical, rare items to complete his task, and his genius is in looking at her in a mirror to complete the task rather than directly – so he is not turned to stone. Pegasus, the winged horse, and another mythological creature, Chrysaor, sprung forth from her neck when her head was removed.
Such a sad story, but such a beautiful door knocker…
Photo credits: World Myths and Legends in Art
People have long been able and willing to justify the effort and time taken to create many amazing things in the name of religion and honoring higher powers. This faith and the things it can create are seen in the oddest of spots, including this salt mine in Poland, which houses a chapel with chandeliers that have crystals made of salt! They are a lot more durable than the ice chandelier that we saw in Sweden, and also throw a strange dusky night time light. In the eighteenth century, lead-cut crystal became much more common with the advent of new technologies, and people also found that it made great chandeliers because the light refracted gorgeously through the
multifaceted crystals – however, salt does not behave the same way! Although, you can imagine how it would be a battle to keep the inside of a mine well-lit.
These chandeliers are in the Chapel of St Kinga, around 200 metres underground. The chandeliers are hung traditionally, with crystal chains extending from the top out to the ring, which holds the globes, and from there to the bottom piece, with a bit of chain left to hang for decorative effect. The crystals are really rustic, and give a beautifully juxtaposed effect – with the roughness and opacity of salt crystals in the confines of what is traditionally a luxury household item, and a trapping of the very rich.
The chapel also holds some intricate relief carvings in salt of various religious scenes, created in the early 1900s, and people come to ceremonies here, around three times a year, in a solemn, ancient and historical place…
Photo credits: Salt chandelier by Jessica Marshall, Salt chandelier by bregman
