Green Man

Marty Long
American
Green Man
carved beech, 2002
Gift of Nancy Peters Ryan

Green Man was a name coined by Lady Raglan in 1939 to describe a medieval image usually found in churches. He may be carved from many different types of media, or depicted in illuminated manuscripts and stained glass, and is found on any architectural surface worthy of ornamentation. His is a grotesque face with foliage sprouting from his mouth, nose, eyes or ears, or comprised entirely of leaves.

Early Green Men were represented in Classical Rome, and this image moved northward along with Christianity, only to vanish after the Reformation and reappear spontaneously in the seventeenth century, in depictions on Scottish gravestones. Green Men figured largely in Victorian architecture as a decorative motif. The Green Man has enjoyed a revival in modern visual art. His ambiguous symbolism and the many moods which his face reflects leave his significance open to wide and fanciful interpretation.

The Arboretum's Green Man was carved from a beech tree that had declined from old age. It is located on the Holly Slope. The back of the sculpture is hollow, with a small incline, so visitors can peer through the cut-out eyes of the Green Man.

Dedicated to the Horticulture Staff at the Morris Arboretum