Twelve small sculptures of demons dating to the early 15th century have been “rediscovered” at a church in Norfolk, England. Find the story here.
The most interesting part of the story is that the demons, each matched to an apostle, appear to be triumphing over the apostles. This is confounding scholars, who have come up with admittedly weak-sauce explanations for glee and dominant physical poses of the demons.
Truth is, probably just an artist who was angry, cynical, incompetent, or all three. And now we have to find a scholarly explanation for it!
The interpretation of the thing: demons are imposing, frightful, grotesque, confidently sidling up and tempting folks. The apostles – with much struggle, weariness, and distress – succeeded in turning away from these demons, keeping them behind and Christ before (well, except one apostle in the end). The demons are chipper because they know the apostles’ resistance is difficult for them, and that the demons may yet prevail in time. Get behind them Satan!
I’ll accept that. The longer I looked at the picture above the braver the apostle looked.