One of many strengths of artwork historian A.L. McClanan’s latest guide is its intention: to offer a historic overview of the numerous modes by which the legendary creature referred to as “the griffin” seems in artwork and literary historical past. Griffinology: The Griffin’s Place in Delusion, Historical past and Artwork purposefully provides a variety of distinct views on varied areas and eras for instance this legendary creature’s prevalence within the cultural historical past of ethnoreligious teams world wide.
McClanan doesn’t simply take into account the extensively accepted, slender definition of the “griffin”: particularly, a mix of a lion (the ruler of beasts) and an eagle (the ruler of birds). As an alternative, Griffinology provides a extra expansive definition. Spanning some 5,000 years, the textual content explores varied types and doable combos of this hybrid motif and the way it emerges within the visible language of particular traditions, in addition to via their cultural alternate. From South and West Asia to North Africa and Europe, griffins are in all places: wall reliefs, tombs, tusks, tapestries, consuming vessels, manuscripts, alms purses, and even tattoos. In its evaluation of those historic representations, the guide attracts our consideration to the symbolic hyperlinks between the creature and shows of human energy — be it via the constructed atmosphere of the Byzantine and Sassanian Persian empires, patterns present in Islamic and Byzantine silks, and weapons and armor.
Unrecorded artist, “Close Helmet” (c. 1550) from Milan or Brescia, Italy, metal, gold, and silver, with a visor formed like the top of a griffin (picture public area through the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork)
Though Griffinology delivers on its promise to contemplate each artwork and literature — together with the little-known Gryphon character in Lewis Carroll’s The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland (1865) — nearly all of textual examples are restricted to the borders of Western Europe. Cited examples of Medieval and trendy heraldry and visible branding are additionally primarily European. Although the creature is acknowledged as an essential a part of fantasy novels, chivalric tales, and journey writing — together with a dialogue of its place in common tradition and books equivalent to Harry Potter — these parts of the textual content may have enriched their argument by incorporating examples from traditions outdoors of Europe. Within the Armenian custom, a model of the griffin seems in plenty of textual and visible examples from the premodern world, and likewise in coats of arms. The phrase basguj, probably from the Center Persian paškuč, was used to translate the Greek gyrp as “griffin” within the Septuagint. Premodern examples from Arabic and Persian literature additionally incorporate the creature as a metaphor for energy, safety, and the mixing of cultures.
Griffins are referred to as by completely different names and fluctuate of their hybridity throughout traditions, however they equally carry symbolic and allegorical capabilities. Although it might be unimaginable to compile each iteration, Griffinology does present us with a reasoning: “Many intriguing renderings regretfully had to be omitted, for within this limited space I tried to balance relatively famous works with those less renowned.” The method to distinguishing between what is comparatively famend and what’s much less acknowledged, nonetheless, appears to be rooted in a European framework.
John Tenniel, ‘The Gryphon, Alice and the Mock Turtle” illustration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) (picture courtesy The New York Public Library)
Unknown artist, “Statuette of Nemesis in Form of Female Griffin with Wings” (2nd century CE Egypt), blue-glazed faience, 9 3/16 x 2 13/16 x 4 3/16 inches (23.4 x 7.2 x 10.7 cm) (picture courtesy the Brooklyn Museum)
An 1894 illustration of the embossed gold jug from the treasure of Nagyszentmiklós by Hungarian archaeologist József Hampel (picture public area from József Hampel’s A regibb kozepkor (IV-X. szazad) emlekei magyarhonban)
Pair of griffin protomes with bone or ivory inlay, from a cauldron (c. 600 BCE), presumably from Samos, Greece (picture courtesy the Artwork Institute of Chicago)
Terracotta pelike (jar) from Greece (c. 4th century BCE), terracotta, 9 1/16 inches (23 cm) tall (picture public area through the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork)
Griffinology: The Griffin’s Place in Delusion, Historical past and Artwork (2024) by A. L. McClanan is printed by Reaktion Books and is obtainable for buy on-line and thru impartial booksellers.