Gregory's Server|
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My personal Laon favourites are the hippo and the rhino above the western gates. I mean... a naturalistisc hippo and a rhino? How cool is that. The first hippo since antiquity was brought to Europe in 1823. But these artists have definitely seen such an animal, which means they traveled a lot. |
The cathedral of Laon has got the best non-chimeric animal sculptures I've ever seen. There are 16 oxen that look slightly stoned (pun not intended). There is no documentation why those common beats of burden are such a dominant feature, only a medieval legend about their miraculous help during construction. #MedievalSculpture #gothic
More information: https://aleteia.org/2018/02/26/why-are-oxen-perched-on-the-cathedral-of-laon/