Medieval Beastly Beauties

"What in the world is that?!" you might be wondering. It's one of the incredible creatures found in a veritable medieval bestiary painted on wood planks making up the plafonds peints, painted ceilings, showcased at Metz's Musée de la Cour d'Or. [go HERE to see some great photos of the museum on its website] I went there in the fall, but the place is *huge* and really merited another visit. Plus, free entry on the first Sunday of the month doesn't hurt either!

The ceilings were painted around 1225 and effectively "lost" until they were accidentally rediscovered in 1896 when construction was being done on the building.

The creatures range from charicature-esque sea-dwelling species, to multi-headed or multi-limbed land-dwellers. They all sport quirky, human-like - albeit exaggerated! - faces, with full, toothy grimaces. Some beasts are mostly recognizable, or their many parts can be identified as coming from known (real) creatures. But lots of others seem put together in a way that makes you really wonder where these fantastical ideas came from...






There is another room with a plafond peint with this vegetation and floral pattern.

And another still with what they call a "heraldic" pattern, featuring the ceiling's beams decorated with heraldic blazons on a background of simple red stars.

Finally, just a bit of merovingian-era (481-751) jewelry. I love how colorful it is. Just something to remind us that the Middle Ages were a lot more colorful than often thought...

[excuse the sometimes odd-looking editing on the photos - I had to digitally fuss with the lighting effects afterward so the images show up better in the photos, and sometimes this makes them rather grainy]