Tarasque

The Tarasque ( ) is a creature from French mythology. According to the Golden Legend, the beast had a lion-like head, a body protected by turtle-like carapace(s), six feet with bear-like claws, a serpent's tail, and could expel a poisonous breath. Medieval iconography such as renditions in church sculpture did not necessarily conform to this description in the earlier Gothic period, and examples which seemed to were assigned later, in the 14th century. The six-footed, turtle-shelled tarasque was the form depicted on the city seal of Tarascon around the 15th century, and this held to be the norm in 16th- and 17th-century paintings. As St. Martha purportedly encountered the beast in the act of swallowing a human victim, it has become a stock motif in art to portray the monster swallowing a human (e.g. head first, with the victim's legs still dangling). According to tradition, in 1474, René of Anjou initiated the use of the tarasque in the Pentecostal festival, and later used also on the saint's feast day of July 29. Yearly celebration in the last weekend of June was added in the modern day. The effigy or float ( ) of the tarasque has been built over the years for parading through town for the occasion, carried by four to a dozen men concealed inside.

The Tarasque ( ) is a creature from French mythology. According to the Golden Legend, the beast had a lion-like head, a body protected by turtle-like carapace(s), six feet with bear-like claws, a serpent's tail, and could expel a poisonous breath. Medieval iconography such as renditions in church sculpture did not necessarily conform to this description in the earlier Gothic period, and examples which seemed to were assigned later, in the 14th century. The six-footed, turtle-shelled tarasque was the form depicted on the city seal of Tarascon around the 15th century, and this held to be the norm in 16th- and 17th-century paintings. As St. Martha purportedly encountered the beast in the act of swallowing a human victim, it has become a stock motif in art to portray the monster swallowing a human (e.g. head first, with the victim's legs still dangling). According to tradition, in 1474, René of Anjou initiated the use of the tarasque in the Pentecostal festival, and later used also on the saint's feast day of July 29. Yearly celebration in the last weekend of June was added in the modern day. The effigy or float ( ) of the tarasque has been built over the years for parading through town for the occasion, carried by four to a dozen men concealed inside.

Heraldry and numismatics

The Tarasque is featured on the coat of arms of Tarascon, and here too, the beast/dragon is depicted as devouring a human, at least in later versions of the seal. In 11th or 12th century seals of the city, the tarasque is given an appearance of a crocodile or some sort of amphibian according to one opinion. The city seal from the 13th century appears much as a plain dragon according to one 18th century writer on medieval coats of arms, though Faillon counters that this represents not a dragon guarding the city, but the tarasque. This early type perhaps dates to as far back as the 11th century, seen on seals struck on méreau type tokens. The later design of the seal depicting the tarasque with a (turtle-like) carapace appeared in the 15th century. Later design of the city seal distinctly shows the tarasque swallowing a human. In the language of heraldry, the coat of arms has been described as featuring "below [the castle with crenelated towers argent] a dragon of sinople devouring a man and covered with scales of gold".

Festivities

. The festival of the tarasque was initiated on April 14, 1474, during Pentecost in Tarascon, at the behest of René of Anjou, in order to amuse his citizens with a reenactment of St. Martha's miracle. Later, a second festival was held on 29 July, the feast-day of Saint Martha. In former days, the effigy of the tarasque was paraded through the streets twice a year, and a maiden portraying St. Martha escorting the tarasque held it by the leash (or a white ribbon) in one hand. In the modern day (post-World War II), the festival came to be held annually on the last Sunday of June, to tell the tale of the Tarasque, as well as Tartarin, the main character of Alphonse Daudet's Tartarin of Tarascon.

References

Citations

Works cited

Alt URL ; Volume 2 (1848); (translation) ; copy via Google

External links

Tarasque Tudela - Navarra - Spain

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1373676378 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.