Pen with black ink, Hand Burgkmair, Germany, 1500-1503
Fine art replica giclée print © 2020 by Allen Bjorkman

The Fight in the Forest

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Image Dimensions: 11 x 8 1/2 inches

Matted Dimensions: 15 x 12 1/2 inches

Please note that the frames shown are not always available, and the outside dimensions of framed prints vary in size. Mat colors may also vary. Contact our frame shop for custom framing at no extra cost at http://pictureconnectionoswego.com/
The theme of the wild man is very popular at the end of the Middle Ages. Covered in hair, menacing, he is also a pure being, living in harmony with his natural environment and preserved from the vices of society.

Wild men or savages—usually depicted carrying staves or clubs, living beyond the bounds of civilization without shelter or fire, lacking feelings and souls—were then a metaphor for man without God. Common superstition held that long-haired wild men, known as lutins, who danced to firelight either to conjure demons or as part of fertility rituals, lived in mountainous areas such as the Pyrenees. In some village charivaris at harvest or planting time dancers dressed as wild men, to represent demons, were ceremonially captured and then an effigy of them was symbolically burnt to appease evil spirits. The church, however, considered these rituals pagan and demonic.

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