Misericordia International

.cconnting oi a Klemisn Provero onike choir stalls of Asiorga1

Isabel Mateo G6mez

Fig. 1: Man on Globe

1 Reproduced with permission of the author from Archivo Espanol de Arte,1996, pp. 202-203. Translated by Elaine C. Block, Wilfried Schouwink andSonja Schouwink

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On an armrest of the choir stalls of Astorga —- esthetically relatedto those at Le6n — we see a nude man on an inverted globe of theearth (Fig 1). This scene has been interpreted by F. Lopez-Rios asthe possession of the world, a symbol of authority, and as anemblem of the king's stall in that it represents the world in his handand the world at Ms feet This same author also places this scene inrelation to the painting Netherlandish Proverbs by Bniegel, now inthe National Museum in Berlin describing how a villager, from awindow, defecates on the world, a scene interpreted by the studiesas of no importance at all. Thus the defecation will be approved assatire through outrage.2

Franz Roh sees in this scene of Bruegers Proverb Painting threeproverbs. (Figs. 2 and 3) The man who is sitting on the window,cards in his hand, corresponds to the Flemish proverb: 'Die Kartenbekommt der Geek (der Narr im Gluck) which is the same as "Thecards are foolish (fool's luck). The same man is defecating on theworld: "Er beschisst die ganze Welt", which is to say, "He defecateson the whole world", and finally the world on which he defecates ispresented with the cross below, corresponding to the proverb "Zurverkehrten Welt" or "the world upside down".3

2 Arte y medicina en las misericordias de los cows espanoles, Junta deCastiUayLeon, 1991, pp. 111-112. Fig. 39, No senala que "estudiosos sonlos que mantienen esta teoria.

3 Pieter Bniegel d. A, Die Niederldndischen Sprichworter, Stuttgart, 1960,p. 14.

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Fig. 2: Man in Window with Cards

Fig. 3: Hie World Upside Down

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When David Teniers II painted The Proverbs now in the NationalGallery in London, in imitation of Bruegel's painting,4 the worldupside-down appeared on the facade of a house but dispensed withthe man at the window defecating on it; it is simply the worldupside down. (Fig. 4)

Fig. 4: The Proverbs David Teniers II

4 Se trata de una potal vendida en el museo, en cuyo reverso viene elcontenido escrito de cada refran

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Maeterltak,5 when he referred to the Flemish origin of the proverbson the choir stalls cited, among other examples, the armrest atSaint-Seurin (Fig. 5), in which a "fool" defecates on a terrestrialglobe, and that illustrates the Flemish proverb "Hy beschyt deWereld (D conchie le monde) - he defecates on the world. The sameauthor tells us that the theme is similarly encountered in theHaarlem painting, as well as in the following centuries of whichFigure 6 is a good example of a woodcut from the eighteenthcentury.6

Fig. 5: Saint-Seurin armrest

D ESEBESCHXET

Fig. 6: 18th century woodcut

5 Le genre satirique, fantastique et licencieux dans la sculpture flamandeet vallone: des misericordes des stalles, Paris, 1910.

6 Loc. Cit. Nota 4, sacando de la obra de Ferd. Van er Haeghen:Bibliographie gantoise. Recherches sur la vie et les travaux des imprimeursde Gand, t. V, ed. Gand.

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J^LE^^

In our work on choir stalls, under the chapter on proverbs, weexplained how in the cases of such examples of proverbs whichwere carved by artists who came from the north of Europe we foundmany identical versions in proverbs of our country (Spain).7 Of thisproverb on the choir stalls of Astorga we have found no versionamong the diverse proverbs we have consulted. Special attentionwas paid to those from the Middle Ages.8 It may well be possiblethat it appears in some popular story unknown to me.

Of the interpretations given by Lopez-Rios Fernandez, I believe thesecond to be the most apt. This is to say, however, when assumingthat the man is demonstrating his disgust for a world devoid ofvalues, the world in which he happens to live, he shows his disgustby means of an obscene and injurious pose. Further emphasis of hisfeeling is reflected in the image of the world upside down on whichhe defecates, a world whose inverted cross indicates this subversionof values which characterizes society at the close of the fifteenthcentury.

St Catherine

71. Mateo: Temas profanos en la escultura gotica espanola: Las silleriasde cow. Madrid, 1979. Capitulo dedicaco a los Refranes.

8 E.S. O'Kane: Refranes yfrases proverbMes espaholas de la Edad Media.Madrid, 1959, Anejo II del Boletin de la Real Academia Espanola; Dr.Castillo de Lucas: Folklore medico del aparato digestivo. Barcelona,laboratories, AlmiraM. Mateo, loc. Cit. Nota 6.

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