Friday 20 February 2015

Munich: dragons, demons and death

I spent Valentine's weekend in Munich, southern Germany, where we yomped around as many art galleries and churches as our poor feet could cope with. And yes, we found a Sanctified Corpse. No holiday would be complete without one :-)

Paying my respects before the "Altar to Sin" at the Villa Stuck. I do not make this stuff up, guys!

Here are some of the artistic highlights...

Dragons:

St Margaret's

St George's
On the corner of the new Town Hall

Demons and Devils:

The Devil's footprint ("Teufelstritt") in the Frauenkirche. He's a size 9, FYI.
Detail of St Gudula - the teeny devil is trying to blow out her lantern so she can't get to church
St Anthony is being tempted by a pair of "beautiful ladies" ... BUT WAIT - Why have they got horns and claws?!
St Anthony's demons resort to more direct methods

Judgement Day ... The thongs were visibly a later addition, btw

Death:

No grave is complete without toads, snakes, lizards and a crayfish (!)
I think this is Salome dancing (with Death) for the head of St John the baptist

The veiled skull of St Honoratus
And yes - here she is: the bejeweled skeleton of St Munditia in Old Peter's church! She has staring glass eyes... (at least I hope they are glass) ...

... and a spare head up top

2 comments:

Jo said...

Those first two dragons appear to be lap-dragons!

And I would have thought the devil would wear pointier boots...

Janine Ashbless said...

He wore spurs though!