Foliate heads / the so-called Green Man
About the work
Imported from the workbook's Full reassessment sheet, revised 7 October 2026 (record ID 108). The assessment below is the workbook's comparative judgment under its stated criteria; source links and limits are retained.
Workbook assessment: Spread only
Date or witness: Medieval tradition; cited Whalley Abbey carving 1418–1434
Region: European architectural decoration
Workbook date-sort bounds: 1418 CE to 1434 CE; these bounds are not automatically invention or disappearance dates.
Description
Human faces merge with leaves, or vegetation emerges from their mouths. Many variants recur on church decoration and other objects.
Evidence of adoption or transmission
Foliate heads recur with variants across architectural decoration.
What remains uncertain
Recurrence can result from artisan and patron networks. The collective Green Man identity is a modern interpretive construction; a continuous popular pagan movement is not established.
Workbook revision note: Reassessed using grassroots criteria