Wild men as bearer of coats of arms in the Middle Ages

Before starting my studies in art history, I studied for four years in the School of Fine Arts of Tours. During this time I started experimenting the subject of wild men by creating a series of paintings in relation with the medieval representations of this figure. As I arrived in art history, I thought it to be interesting to try and discover more about this figure from a theoritical point of view.

As I started documenting myself more and more about the wild man, I realised that there was a recurrent iconographical way to present him. Apart from the very first representations – which are a bit unclear – the wild man has the appearance of man but is almost always represented covered in fur exept for the face (even if he generally has a beard) the hands, the feet, the breasts for the wild woman, and sometimes the knees and elbows. The wild man often holds a club or a log as a weapon, thus showing his strength and his savage side.

The origins of this figure are diverse and its symbolic quite complex. First of all we may note that there is no written description of the wild man as I described him earlier before his first appearances in sculpture and other arts. He comes at the same time from biblical sources and antic texts as well as celtic and nordic mythology, and his pictorial representation is an aggreagte of these different sources. Regarding the antic texts Isidore form Sevilla had a huge role to play. His depictions of wild folks living at the ends of the earth had a great influence throughout the middle ages. Bizarre beings such as cynochephali – men with dog heads – are to be found in many medieval representations. But the biblical sources and celtic and nordic mythology have some characters whose aspects come closer to our wild man than those of Isidore from Sevilla. The pilosi for example, a kind of small hairy demons described in the Bible, could be one of the influences for the wild man, or the character of Esau, this man born covered in fur and who had a peculiar talent for hunting. As for the celtic and nordic mythology the figure of the mad man wandering around in the forest also seems to be one of the inspirations for the wild man.

Indeed the wild man, apart from his singular appearance, is well-known for some specific traits. First his incredible strength that makes him a threat as well as a great ally if tamed. Then his living place : he does not, as Isidore from Sevilla’s beings, live at the ends of the earth. In fact he lives right next to civilisation, in the forest. He lives in hidden caverns or tree trunks, almost invisible for the unattentive eye. He is also famous for being close to animals, even sometimes considered as their master. Moreover in some regions such as the alpine region he appears in carnivals and folklore, people dressing up as him. He is in this way a figure of popular culture. But at the same time he is definitely a part of the aristocratic and court culture, appearing as the antithesis of the knight, in seals, caskets, tapestries or palacial decorations.

The symbolic meaning of hairs is also an important part of the symbolic meaning of the figure of the wild man. During the middle ages, the symbolic meaning of hairs is different for men and for women, but there is almost always a fear of the abundance of hairs. The abundance of hairs was considered as a consequence of the action of evil, but could be tolerated in some particular contexts such as eremitism or the loss of a close friend or family member. Therefore was the fur of the wild man seen as someting evil in the beginning. However this point of view evolved with the development of figures like St. Onuphre or Maria Magdalena, two holy figures represented sometimes with hairs all over their bodies. The representations of hairy hermits or penitents influenced the representations of wild men, and their fur became more of an attribute to show their strength and particular status than a sign of evil. Sometimes it even became a good thing because it was a symbol of their life outside from civilisation and hence outside from all the temptations and vices that civilisation brings with it.

All these characteristics and sources make him an ambivalent being, playing with the borders : between wildness and civilisation, animals and mankind, folklore and aristocratic culture, reason and madness. Therefore is its symbolic rich and complex and I soon noticed that it would be impossible to study everything about the wild man in only one year.

I was faced with the necessity of reducing my work to an aspect and more particularly a context of use of the figure : heraldry. In heraldic art the figure is still complex but its meanings are somewhat reduced. He is also less ambivalent. By limiting myself to the heraldic aspect I could define temporal limits to my subject. Indeed the wild man appears in heraldic art in the 14th century – around 1340 according to Florent Pouvreau, Du poil et de la Bête. Iconographie du corps sauvage en occident à la fin du Moyen Age – and is used in this context until the 16th century – around 1530. I decided to focus on the wild man as bearer of the coat of arms because he keeps an autonomy that he does not have when he is integrated into the coat of arms and its meanings are richer. The wild man in heraldic art is more or less domesticated by men, his savage side is tamed and his strength becomes a tool for the protection of men. While studying different artworks, mostly seals, objects and palacial decorations, I noticed that even if we find some example of the use of the wild man in a heraldic context in England, Spain, Italy or Portugal, most of the artworks came from France, Germany and Flandres. This way I defined the geographical limits of my subject.

The first sources that I used to find informations on the wild man were the iconic book of Richard Bernheimer – Wild Men in the Middle Ages : A Study in Art, Sentiment an Demonology – the recently published book from Florent Pouvreau – Du Poil et de la Bête : Iconographie du corps sauvage en Occident à la fin du Moyen-Age (XIIIe – XVIe siècle) – and the works from Claudie Vareille-Dahan especially her article published in Le Palais et son Décor au Temps de Jean de Berry, « L’homme sauvage aux murs des palais ». These different works pointed me to other very important works such as the exhibition catalogue made by Timothy Husband, The Wild Man ; Medieval Myth and Symbolism or a german exhibition catalogue from 1963 titled Die Wilden Leute des Mittelalters. All these sources helped me to establish a list of the artworks that I wanted to study.

I started gathering a lot of images depicting the wild woman as bearer of the coat of arms as well. In the beginning, I was thinking about making a whole part of my master thesis about the role of the wild woman, depending on whether she is presented alone or accompanied

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