From them as being unusual in treatment, even in this stiff Flemish set, is selected the trinity of mowers. Groups of three in mowing scenes is a frequent number. Doubtless this carving is indicative of July, that being the “Hey-Monath” of early times. One of the side supporters or pendant carvings of this is a hare riding upon the back of a leoparded lion, perhaps some reference to Leo, the sign governing July.
The three mowers do not make a pleasing carving, owing to the repetition and want of curve.
Other instances of triplication in Gothic design might be given, particularly in the choice of floral forms in which nature has set the pattern. This section, however, is chiefly important as a convenient means of incorporating a record of something further of the fundamental beliefs of the world’s youth, connected with and extending the question of the remote origin of the ideas at the root of so many grotesques in church art.
The Fox in Church Art.
PREACHING FOX,
CHRISTCHURCH,
HAMPSHIRE.he Fox, apostrophized as follows:
“O gentle one among the beasts of prey
O eloquent and comely-faced animal!”
as an important subject in mediæval art, has two distinct places.