A figurehead is a carved wooden decoration, often female or bestial, found at the prow of ships largely made between the 16th and 19th century.
Although earlier ships had often had some form of bow ornamentation (e.g. the Viking ships of ca. A.D. 800-1100), the general practice was introduced with the galleons of the 16th century, as the figurehead as such could not come to be until ships had an actual head structure on which to place it.
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A figurehead is a carved wooden decoration, often female or bestial, found at the prow of ships largely made between the 16th and 19th century.
Although earlier ships had often had some form of bow ornamentation (e.g. the Viking ships of ca. A.D. 800-1100), the general practice was introduced with the galleons of the 16th century, as the figurehead as such could not come to be until ships had an actual head structure on which to place it.
As with the stern ornamentation, the purpose of the figurehead was often to indicate the name of the ship in a non-literate society (albeit in a sometimes very convoluted manner); and always, in the case of naval ships, to demonstrate the wealth and might of the owner. At the height of the Baroque period, some ships of the line boasted gigantic figureheads, weighing several tons and sometimes twinned on both sides of the bowsprit.
A large figurehead, being carved from massive wood and perched on the very foremost tip of the hull, adversely affected...
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