Denmark Road Ways Two on the loose. Dan with down travels anywhere.: Kronborg Castle: Decorative Details, Tapestries, Story Carvings

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Kronborg Castle: Decorative Details, Tapestries, Story Carvings

Kronborg Decorates.
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The Artist, the Carver

The Personal

1. Tapestries, personalized.

Kronborg has a whole tapestry room. Enjoy the Nativity, with the amazed cow, with headdress; and the donkey, with its tongue out, about to lick the baby?

Kronborg Castle tapestry detail, donkey with tongue out, Nativity

Joseph says, Wha?

Kronborg Castle Tapestry. Joseph looks stunned, Nativity

Joseph is none too handsome. These tapestry details would not show the detail unless highlighted with shadows, thus the change in shade to a cooler tone. The original is more tawny.

Kronborg Castle tapestry, Nativity. Mary knows what is going on

Some medieval tapestries show vehicles and lights in space, apparently. Next person to Kronborg: check the Tapestry room, after reviewing this site at http://ancientaliens.5u.com/photo2.html; and please translate the wording. We understand these were used as teaching tools not only the ladies doing their needlework year after year, but for anyone who came to the castle.

Read the history of tapestries and their uses at http://www.designerwalltapestries.com/History_of_Tapestries_s/96.htm: wall insulation, providing warmth; portable castle to castle; status. The blue color would have come from woad, an expensive wood source from the South of France, in Cathar country. The numbers of colors were limited.

The Papal Crusade against the Cathars, the Albigensians in the South of France and the Pyrenees, extended 1000-1300+, perhaps at the same time as these tapestries were woven. The teaching of doctrine would have been particularly important also because the Inquisition was commencing just as the Cathars and Alibigensians, believing in a gnostic or dual theology of Christianity, were being wiped out as heretic. See Timeline, Heresy Wars, Cathars

2. Carved stories on chests, wardrobes:

Carved compartmented storage chest, valuables, Kronborg Castle, Denmark

Rosettes are a favored design feature from the Middle East to Europe. Do a search for rosette design history, and find a timeline of its use and meanings, from 196 BC in Egypt, to Mesopotamia, and see also http://www.docstoc.com/docs/6294273/Rosette_-design-

Carved chest, Kronborg Castle, Ladies as Themes

Lock detail, storage chest, Kronborg Castle, DK

Humankind began Androgynous. Adam and Eve, both with breasts, Kronborg Castle, Helsingor, DK

The front of the chest shows two scenes from Eden, details of panels below. Note all the rosettes: one of the earliest decorative motifs in the world. Egypt, Mesopotamia, follows human migrations. Is it in Africa?

On the far right, the angel guarding the way to Eden (never come back no more) also is depicted as female, as the Bible says.

Apple as joint endeavor. Creation and the Tempting Tree, Kronborg Castle, carved storage chest, Denmark

The panels represent Eve's arrival in her own right, and the temptation. See panels below. Note, though, that the Tempter is not in the form of a snake.

Question for theologians: Is a deity all-powerful who cannot control the borders? Joke.

A simple separating of two equals, Creation detail, Kronborg Castle storage chest, Denmark, No rib.

There is no "removal" of a "rib" from a "male" and then a creation of a female out of it. Instead, one entity sleeps, and half of it is separated out. Right this way, dear. Adm as Hermaphrodite.

Temptation detail, Creation, Kronborg Castle chest

Both beings are right there, as the Bible says. Yet the buck got passed. Adam condoned, participated, assumed the risk. Did he ever tell her which tree was meant as forbidden? The deity didn't. The deity relied on Adam to pass the word. There were lots of trees, and which is in the "center" of a huge Eden? Which is knowledge? Which is life? Help out here, says Eve.

How was she to know which was off limits. I can't even find my way to the soup aisle.