Uprooting 'The Green Man': A Reappraisal of Gothic Foliate Head and Mask Iconography, c. 1200-1350

Composite foliate figures flourished throughout the art and architecture of the Gothic period. Despite their lasting influence on the development of illumination and sculpture in Europe, these vegetal hybrids still lack a systematic art-historical study that looks beyond the Anglophone world. This thesis seeks to address this lacuna through an interdisciplinary study of the manifestations of this motif in France and England. Tracing the development of these images in sculpture from Saint-Denis (c. 1200) to Southwell Minster (c. 1285), this thesis also examines its manifestations in manuscripts, from the Beatus Vir initials of Psalters to the bas-de-page illuminations of the Estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei (c. 1250). Documenting diverse sources of evidence, including archaeological reports, architectural drawings, marginalia, hagiography, and theological writings, supports a fresh understanding of this motif, starting with its contemporary nomenclature. Abandoning the rather limiting designation 'Green Man', this thesis proposes more appropriate terminology for these figures, whilst highlighting key variations in taxonomy for two distinct, yet related, image tropes. This sets the basis for situating this motif within the intellectual history of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Considering the relation of foliate figures to networks of cultural and intellectual exchange, and taking into account their location, adjacent imagery, visibility, and marginality across media, this thesis sheds light on their cultural and symbolic significance as well as their dissemination and development. This study also explores the ancient precedents of these motifs, and demonstrates their didactic, and not merely decorative, function. Understood in terms of transition and metamorphosis, the Gothic foliate mask was not merely a Roman relic, but an ancient image trope adapted to contemporary demands: rebirthed with a new, allegorical, significance that enriched both manuscripts and buildings. It suggests that Gothic foliate figures were not folkloristic, either in derivation or connotation, but rather, scholastic: gateways into the world, and mind, of medieval humanism.