One of many strengths of artwork historian A.L. McClanan’s latest guide is its intention: to supply a historic overview of the numerous modes by which the legendary creature often known as “the griffin” seems in artwork and literary historical past. Griffinology: The Griffin’s Place in Fantasy, Historical past and Artwork purposefully gives 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 think about the extensively accepted, slim 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 gives a extra expansive definition. Spanning some 5,000 years, the textual content explores varied types and attainable combos of this hybrid motif and the way it emerges within the visible language of particular traditions, in addition to by their cultural alternate. From South and West Asia to North Africa and Europe, griffins are in every single place: 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 by the constructed setting 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 pinnacle of a griffin (picture public area by way of 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 vital a part of fantasy novels, chivalric tales, and journey writing — together with a dialogue of its place in standard tradition and books equivalent to Harry Potter — these parts of the textual content might have enriched their argument by incorporating examples from traditions outdoors of Europe. Within the Armenian custom, a model of the griffin seems in a variety of textual and visible examples from the premodern world, and in addition in coats of arms. The phrase basguj, more than likely 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 known as by completely different names and fluctuate of their hybridity throughout traditions, however they equally carry symbolic and allegorical features. Although it could 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) (photograph 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 by way of the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork)
Griffinology: The Griffin’s Place in Fantasy, Historical past and Artwork (2024) by A. L. McClanan is revealed by Reaktion Books and is accessible for buy on-line and thru unbiased booksellers.
