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File:Clonfert Cathedral Mermaid 2009 09 17.jpg

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Clonfert Cathedral, Clonfert, County Galway, Ireland

15th-century carving of a mermaid with comb and mirror at the southern pier of the chancel arch. Photographed in the natural evening light. The mermaid can be interpreted as an allusion to St Brendan, the patron of Clonfert Cathedral. To quote one of the surving texts of Brendan's voyage: When all this was over at last, they resumed their journey and once more got into great difficulties, because they saw a beast coming towards them with a human body and face, but from the waist downwards it was fish. It is called a siren, a very lovely creature with a beautiful human shape; it sings so well and its voice is so sweet that whoever hears it cannot resist sleep and does not know what he is doing. When this sea monster approached them, the shipmen fell asleep and let the ship drift: the monks too forgot themselves completely because of its voice and did not know where they were. (See The Voyage of St Brendan, ISBN 0-85989-755-9, p. 141.) According to Colum Hourihane, the mermaid is commonly represented in Romanesque sculpture throughout Europe but they do not appear in Irish art before the 13th century and are comparatively rare after that. Only five such examples are recorded. He writes: Placed at the entrance to either the chancel or the body of the church these symbols must have warned the worshipper of the evils of sin and the need to resist temptation (especially of the flesh) in all its forms. (See Colum Hourihane: Gothic Art in Ireland 1169–1550, ISBN 0-300-09435-3, p. 93.)
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Source Self-photographed
Author Andreas F. Borchert
Reference
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2009/6414

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Attribution: Andreas F. Borchert
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attribution share alike
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International, 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.
Attribution: Andreas F. Borchert
You are free:
  • to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  • to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
  • attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.
GNU head Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.
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Camera location53° 14′ 20.6″ N, 8° 03′ 35.1″ W Kartographer map based on OpenStreetMap.View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMapinfo

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current19:42, 9 December 2009Thumbnail for version as of 19:42, 9 December 20091,776 × 2,082 (2.68 MB)AFBorchert (talk | contribs)Blue tint at the reflections removed.
16:59, 6 December 2009Thumbnail for version as of 16:59, 6 December 20091,776 × 2,082 (2.76 MB)AFBorchert (talk | contribs){{User:AFBorchert/Photo |Location=Clonfert Cathedral, Clonfert, County Galway, Ireland |Date=2009-09-17 |Description=Carving of a mermaid with comb and mirror at the southern pier of the chancel arc. Photographed in the natural evening light. |Reference=2

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