The Man calling Noah (flying buttress figurine)

man calling Noah

The next flying buttress figurine for St. Eusebius's Church in Arnhem is one of the more famous ones: The Man calling Noah. It's a bald little guy bending over in a highly flexible position and shouting to someone down below.

Maybe he shouts that Noah should get along with his boat because the waters are rising?

In any case, the sculpture was made with a lot of humor and it is immediately clear what this guy is doing. He has long pants without belt, and is bare-chested.

Broken

Apart from an ear that had broken off, the original was still complete, though I could see that it was repaired once before in the past because it had broken off at the ankles. Perhaps they encountered the break during disassembly, otherwise the sculpture should have been lying below the church in chunks.

That immediately gives the reason for replacing these statuettes. Originally the church council thought it would suffice to replace only some of the figurines, but when they turned out to be in such a bad condition, all of the figurines were removed as a precaution. Good thing too, so it would appear to be.

To the next flying buttress statue.