The hall in the naval college in Greenwich is beautifully painted. It was built as a hospital for seaman and the rich patrons commissioned some famous painter to decorate it. He painted himself into his painting with his cap out after he had trouble getting paid for his efforts.
Though this is not Gothic, Michelangelo included a few easter eggs of his own in the Sistine Chapel painting of The Last Judgement:
> The Papal Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, deemed the fresco outrageous, and more suitable for public baths or taverns than a chapel. (...) Michelangelo responded by making Minos, judge of the underworld, resemble Cesena. It’s an extremely unflattering portrait;
The Darth Vader at the Washington Cathedral was the result of a competition for kids to submit drawings of possible grotesques and was highly publicized when it was carved, so I wouldnt necessarily call it an easter egg. But in any case, if anyone is interested, here are a couple other fun ones in the Washington Cathedral that are more easter egg like (put there by the artists of their own accord):
* On the North side, there is a grotesque that portrays a leering stone carver looking down on the girls school across the street, carved by a stonecarver to poke fun at one of his colleagues. Above it, another colleague carved a scolding Dean looking down on the leering carver
* What looks like a stray paint streak on the interior ceiling of the north transept is a rendering of Halley's comet which passed by in '86 when they were painting that ceiling
I knew about Darth Vader from Dan Brown's book, but not the ones you mention. Also, if you happen to be at the Washington Cathedral, check out the 'Space Window' stained glass window that contains a piece of moon rock:
The story behind that were something along the lines of, according to legend, if Nidaros Cathedral ever were finished, Trondheim would be swept into the ocean by clay/land-slide, hence, there's a missing brick that'll never be laid.
Another interesting feature of the Nidaros cathedral is that one of the statues - Archangel Michael, if memory serves - has got Bob Dylan's facial features.
The sculptor who restored the statue in the sixties needed a face and as Dylan was opposed to the Vietnam war (as was the sculptor - in addition to being a big Dylan fan), St. Bob wound up on top of a spire.
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[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 45.4 ms ] threadhttp://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-vampire-rabbit-of-new...
> The Papal Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, deemed the fresco outrageous, and more suitable for public baths or taverns than a chapel. (...) Michelangelo responded by making Minos, judge of the underworld, resemble Cesena. It’s an extremely unflattering portrait;
http://www.througheternity.com/blog/nudity-and-controversy-i...
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5006/5296624387_c98a68ff69_b.j...
* On the North side, there is a grotesque that portrays a leering stone carver looking down on the girls school across the street, carved by a stonecarver to poke fun at one of his colleagues. Above it, another colleague carved a scolding Dean looking down on the leering carver
* What looks like a stray paint streak on the interior ceiling of the north transept is a rendering of Halley's comet which passed by in '86 when they were painting that ceiling
https://www.nasa.gov/topics/history/features/spacewindowhist...
The story behind that were something along the lines of, according to legend, if Nidaros Cathedral ever were finished, Trondheim would be swept into the ocean by clay/land-slide, hence, there's a missing brick that'll never be laid.
The sculptor who restored the statue in the sixties needed a face and as Dylan was opposed to the Vietnam war (as was the sculptor - in addition to being a big Dylan fan), St. Bob wound up on top of a spire.
https://stainedglassattitudes.wordpress.com/2014/08/10/great...