Why are there so many flowers in European art?

Often I don’t write because it seems hopeless.
This morning, I was staring at Pinterest as usual.  I imagined getting to talk to an art history professor and an anthropologist at the same time.  I would start by asking, “Why are there so many flowers in European art?”

Either they would say, “So what?  It’s nothing.”  Or they might say, “That’s interesting, tell me more about one specific culture and their beliefs about fertility.”  Of course, I would be stuck there because I’m not as precise in my thinking as they are.  I’m vague, I’m looking at an overview, everything mixed together.  My so-called research is very casual -ok, not perfect.

I’m having a hard time trying to describe what I’m seeing.  It seems to me, when you look for fertility motifs in any European art, it all starts to make sense.  One part connects to another, everything seems to fit together.  Parts that were unexplained begin to make sense.  I should give an example here but can’t think of a good one - has anyone written about pagan symbols in the paintings of Watteau? (I’m thinking of 1. Girl on a Swing and 2. Giles)

How about a not-example:  I can’t think of a way to link Celtic art (pictures of animals knotted together) to the flowery fertility motif art.  I had a sense that there were strange ideas about animals that would link the idea of the zoo to medieval bestiary books.  That’s the edge, or the next thing to think about.  I wonder if knotwork and vines are both meant to show flowing good fortune?

I’m going to try to write more often, even if I don’t have something big to write about.  Later I can go back and put an asterisk on the useful pages.

...

a List of Apotropaic stuff

You don’t need to read this.  I’m just practicing - maybe someday I will be able to express myself clearly.

I imagined a Venn diagram of things that appear near Willies/Sirens/Mermaids.  Things that often turn up near Willies in medieval manuscripts, hmm... I think dragons occur near Willies.  And plump sea monsters...what else?

I think that I see things differently from most everybody.  I’m not sure I can describe it without pictures.  Maybe if I copy my list here, and refer you to my Pinterest.com collection, you will be able to see it my way.

Here is my list of things to look for in my search for European Pagans:

Red & white
Checkered / gingham fabric
Flowers & calico print fabrics
Ducks - geese - swans
Windmills and anything that whirls
Fat bellies: partridge in a pear tree, pigeons - doves - chickens
Diamond shapes as womb, as Harlequin, as a coat of 1000 furs
Blackface / whiteface / carnival masks / “Moors”
Possibly battles between good and evil
Anything apotropaic (it’s all about apotropaic)
Girl on a Swing, swinger of birches, carnival rides, death defying tightrope walkers
Dance
Seeds / dots
Hair and anything that looks like hair, brooms, fringe
Vase, bucket, flowerpot, basket
Water and vines
Hand spinning?
Anything that seems to be moving: busy patterns, crowded artwork, (optical illusions?)
Reflections, mirrors, reversals & symmetry in artwork
Things that may symbolize male fertility:  arrows, spears, swords, clubs, walking sticks with a “Y” shape at the top, lions, unicorns, (griffons? Centaur?)

All the good luck symbols...
And all the symbols woven into Lithuanian sashes
All the symbols stitched into Romanian blouses

So, basically I’m looking for Pagans, but not looking for spiritual nor occult pagans.  I’m looking for a worldview.  I guess I should read something about Wicca.  But I don’t want some crazy California type to tell me what European Pagans believed.  I hope to explore source material and find out myself.

There are no wild lions in Europe

Here is the link that I wanted to put at the end of the previous page:

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/a-pagan-exorcism-in-sardinia

It’s about the mamuthones and issohadores, and I want to point out that the word exorcism in the title just means they are cleaning out misfortunes and assuring a prosperous new year.

I may not be doing my research properly, but at least I’m trying.  And since ‘there’s no smoke without fire’ some of what I’ve found may turn out to be true.  So, I will go on looking for lions.  If lions are somehow pagan, that would give a new meaning to all the pictures of Saint Jerome and the lion...

I’m going on the idea that pagan culture was everywhere in Europe, only thinly covered up by Christianity.  I want to know what the pagan stories were.  What if the fairy tale of the 12 months / twelve old men in a forest, what if that matches up to the mamuthones?  But why not 13 as in a lunar year?

After lions, I hope to write about sea monsters.  I’ve found a picture of a knight aiming a spear at a sea monster.  It looks a lot like St. George and the dragon.  I’m hoping that sea monsters from the 1700’s somehow represent fertility.

I’m sorry I can’t add pictures just now.  There’s a picture in the book, Splendor At Court by Roy Strong - I really want to show you this picture: The Chariot of Minerva (figure 121 on page 167)
The chariot looks like a sleigh, and it is pulled by a creature half lion / half dragon.  Looks a lot like a Russian Embroidery with the Mother of All on her Sun Shallop surrounded by two dragons.  Almost every picture in this book has something that could be pagan, but there’s nothing about it in the text.

Half a blog is better than none.  But I need pictures!
I’d like to show the sirens with their mirrors (figure 116, page 160.)


...

Zoo, Circus, Carnival

Zoo, circus, carnival- I think there are pagan origins that link them together.  But the zoo, that’s difficult to prove.  Maybe it’s a crazy idea, but what if I could connect the idea of the medieval bestiary with the zoo?  What if medieval bestiary books were made as royal wedding gifts?  Could these books have been fertility symbols?  Ok, ok, too many what if’s.

So, when I look for sirens in Russian folk art, I keep finding folk art lions...  I got to thinking about lions and unicorns as a male version of the willies.  [Remember, there is a whole book about the willies.  Title: The Dancing Goddesses by E.W.Barber]. What if European Pagans had peculiar ideas about animals, not only lions and unicorns, but all kinds of animals...?  I’m sure there is more to discover about this.

Reading list:

King Herla’s Quest and other medieval stories from Walter Map
by Thomas B. Leekley, Vanguard Press 1956

Splendor At Court, Renaissance Spectacle and the Theater of Power
by Roy Strong, Houghton Mifflin Co. 1973 (GT 4842)

¡Carnaval!
edited by Barbara Mauldin, Univ. of Washington Press 2004 (GT 4180)

Looking at Pagans with Painted Faces

Here is a page from Wikipedia I’m interested in:  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Morris
1934 — The idea that pagan blackface is very ancient can be traced to an author who wrote in 1934.  It’s footnote number 15:

Gallop, Rodney (1934). "The Origins of the Morris Dance". Journal of the English Folk and Dance Society. 1 (3): 122–129.

This paragraph from the Wikipedia page (above) is very interesting to me:

“Gallop (1934)^[15] questions the Moorish link, quoting both Douce and Cecil Sharp who felt the English dance was too dissimilar in style and appearance to be derived from the continental European Moorish dances believed to be of Moorish origin. Sharp himself appears to have changed his view between 1906, when he saw a link between the black faces of English morris and the dancers on the Franco–Spanish border, and 1912, when he viewed the dance to be a pan-European custom possibly corrupted by Moorish influence. He argued that the name Moorish was used as a description of an existing earlier tradition, not because the dancers represented Moors. Gallop goes on to examine the linkage between the English morris dance and the mouriscada or morisca dances of Spain and Portugal, which involve ritual, choreographed battles between the Christians and Moors or Turks, often to music, involving swords and handkerchiefs. Gallop asks whether the Christian–Moorish link is actually a later interpretation of earlier pagan mock battles between Summer and Winter, such as that fought on May Day on the Isle of Man between the Queens of Summer and Winter. He argues that in parts of Portugal and the Basque Country, the word moor is also used to mean 'pagan', and that perhaps morris dance originally meant 'pagan dance', and that bells and disguised faces are a common feature of pagan ritual. Thus, for Gallop, the Moorish link is coincidental and the true origins are much older and pagan. This view remains popular for many today.”

Well, first I’d like to go find the 1934 paper and read it carefully.  Then I’d like to do some research, using some technologies that were not available in 1934 (!) to look into the history of pagans.  Why do they blacken their faces? Or whiten their faces as the issohadores do?
How far back in history can this tradition be traced?

I’m spending a lot of time thinking about mamuthones and issohadores.  They are so mysterious.  I can easily find photos and articles about them on the internet.  But I may have to wait a long time - as eventually their secret will get out.  I think eventually someone will explain this tradition in terms of apotropaic magic, averting evil & attracting good fortune.  One article mentioned that the mamuthones in groups of 12 represent the months of the year.  I know nothing about it, but it seems to me that they represent either ancestors or animal spirits.  I just want to point out that even though they seem to be very popular, there is very little written about them.

When I find that article about mamuthones and issohadores, I will add a link here.

Open Letter to Pinterest

Dear Pinterest,

I want to get back the pictures that I hid by accident.  Please fix the “Hide” button.

It was very frustrating to see pins that I wanted disappear because I slipped onto the wrong button.

I am writing to let you know about what I am doing on Pinterest.  Did you know that I was (probably) the first person to write about Trabzon wire weaving in English?  I mean since the computer age began - because I found one book that mentioned it in the 1980’s.

I love searching Pinterest for knitting and yarn.  I can look at new knitting techniques for hours on end.  But the really exciting stuff on Pinterest relates to my research.  I am trying to make a book:  my book would be a bridge between the books of Elizabeth Wayland Barber and Mary B. Kelly.  So, I am exploring ideas that combine these books by E. W. Barber: The Dancing Goddesses;  When They Severed Earth From Sky; and Women’s Work, The First 20,000 Years... And the four books on Goddess Embroideries by Mary B. Kelly.

It’s not exactly research, actually it’s more like a meander through the anthropology and art history of Europe.  Anyway, most of what I do on Pinterest relates to my so-called research.  I love that people let me look at their thoughts.  I wish that I could interview these people but they are too far away.  We say that a picture is worth a thousand words.  Well, Pinterest is worth a bizillion words... Yay, Pinterest!

All this so-called research is about European Pagans.  What did they believe?  What happened to them? -all their history.  I can’t prove it yet, but I think I found some exciting new bits of pagan history.  I’m not a believer but I like pagans well enough to stay focused on them for a long time.  Yay, Pagans!

Oh, I forgot to mention- I’m also kind of obsessed with fashion.  I’m just good at making my own clothing.  I knit and sew.  I’d like to think that I’m an artist, although I don’t have much time for making stuff theses days.  I use Pinterest to dream about all the stuff I want to make.  Thanks for everything, Pinterest !

Sincerely, Virginia Miller

...

Pagans In Plain Sight

I dream of writing a book.  The idea right now is to call the book, Pagan In Plain Sight.  It would be a survey of European art from a pagan point of view.  This is stupid, but I'm also calling it, "Virginia's theory of everything."  I mean this research is an octopus.  No, it's a millipede -you know, it has a million legs going every which way (very bad witch pun.)

I think that I can draw a line of research from these 2 books [Goddess Embroideries by Mary B. Kelly, and The Dancing Goddesses by Elizabeth Wayland Barber] that goes all over everything European - and ties it all together in one big explaining story about pre-Christian European cultures.

Seems like I'm insane because this story would explain why firetrucks are red, why our flag is red, white and blue, why Harlequin wears patches, and why Santa Claus flies through the sky.  It explains all the flowers in medieval manuscripts, why we have dragons, and why the decorative arts exist.  I'm trying to tie together also why we have stripes, polka dots and flowers on women's clothing.  It explain the Baroque and Rococco art of the 1700's - so far, I have not been able to find an art history book with a decent explanation -where did Baroque come from, why does it exist, what did it mean to people?  Paganism - that's what Baroque art is.  Up until recently, I think, you could not say that as an art history scholar.

I'm tying together opera and carnival rides, zoos and ballet.  It all fits together.  This is the story of a world-view that was everywhere hidden in plain sight.  It was so obvious that people did not need to write it down nor explain it, until sometime in the last 100 years most people forgot about it.  And then, all the efforts to prevent traditions from dying out... all those Ministries of Culture and Tourism were unable to say why the traditions exist.

I see why we have American quilts with the same patterns as Norweigian sweaters -- the same designs are found in traditional art from the Netherlands to Palestine to Kazakhstan, and Iceland to Iberia/Spain and Portugal.

I see continuity across time from the Stone Age to the Victorian Age and beyond.  I see a connection between Slavic Goddesses, Mother Goose, and country ducks wallpaper from the 1980's.  I see people everywhere today repeating the handicraft motifs of the past - and most people not understanding the symbols that they are using.  People are still knitting the sweaters with the Auseklis  8 pointed stars but they don't know what that star says anymore.  People are still stitching quilts with pinwheel designs (kolovrati, the swastika now a rejected symbol) or just quilts with patchwork flowers - I see meaning in almost every quilt design but I'm almost certain that most quilters do not understand these symbols.  Tell me if I am wrong about this.

I don't have time to explain it all now.  But I'm putting just about everything I have into this blog.  This blog is my book about pagan symbols.   -Virginia Miller, Campton, New Hampshire, 18 May 2018

Chalupas - Edible Sun Shallops

Notes

-- there's a recipe in my Betty Crocker Cookbook for chalupas.  It had a nice photo so I tried it.  It's delicious, if you are ok with fried food.  I looked up the word, chalupas.  It's boat and I'm guessing it's similar to the word, shallop.

Shallop: like Sun Shallop in the Goddess Embroideries from Russia...  I was fascinated to find a game called, Lotteria , from Mexico.  It's full of mysterious images, and one of them is labeled, La Chalupa.  It's a picture of a beautiful woman in a canoe filled with fruit and flowers.  I made a guess that this game dates from a time when THEY KNEW pre-Christian culture.  Because I feel certain that La Chalupa matches up with the sun shallop.  I keep thinking about the water beneath her canoe...

There was an old belief (maybe Old English?) that evil can not cross water.  It shows up in the The Lord of the Rings movies several times...  suppose people once thought that water is life (in Europe, not as today's slogan from the protest at Standing Rock, North Dakota.). What would be the most ancient word that we can find for "river"?  I keep coming back to "mer" - sea...

I mean this stuff about the sun shallop explains why Santa flies through the sky in.a sleigh.  Right?  The sleigh is the sun shallop, I think...  which tells me that THEY KNEW.  What I want to know:  what did they know about pagans?, and when did they know it?  I found a quilt covered in red and white Auseklis in a resale shop.  It was stuffed with polyester, so it was not very old, maybe 1940's, but the design and color told me that someone who made quilts knew what these symbols mean.  How could they not know?  This quilt said something loud and clear about apotropaic magic - attracting the abundance and holding off misfortune.

I'm seeing a coherent story pretty much wherever I look.  I hope I can write a book about it.  Maybe just a booklet, a picture book, something easy - I am intimidated by the work involved.  I want to write an explanation that ties together most of the art of the 1700's - 1800's... a grand theory of European pagans hiding in plain sight all over the place.

But the more I think about it, the more I notice problems with pagans.  Hidden underlying problems at the root of the environmental crisis.  Too much fertility at the expense of the natural world.  Culture wars (family values vs. freedom, and USA politics of conservative vs. liberal) based on assumptions that go back to European pagans.  Not to even mention the Natzis and their misuse of the sun sign/swastika.  I would have to write about the problems and it's a big subject that I want to avoid.

--I'm thinking that I need to update what I wrote about the Taraskon.  Maybe I was wrong what I said, maybe the Taraskon is not a recipe for a drug.  I'm thinking now that the Taraskon is really more of a fertility wish.  The Taraskon has both breasts and a very phallic tail, you know, human fertility, plus symbols of crop fertility...