Displaying 1 - 8 of 8
Painting
This pair of animals with the body of a bird, goat's hoofs and a human head formed part of the decorative frieze around the hall at Arlanza Monastery, from which the gryphon exhibited in the museum. They represent bird sirens, sheltering and protecting images from Greek Antiquity. Despite their affable appearance, they refer to the temptations of the senses, to deceit and to the dangers of vice and falsehood. By virtue of their striking appearance, they were highly decorative and they are often present in the rich early XIIIth-century artistic panorama of Burgos.Other fragments from the same ensemble may be admired at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and at the Fogg Art Museum of Cambridge University, both in the United States.
![image for: Anònim. Castella - Griu d'Arlanza - Primer quart del segle XIII [1]](https://www.museunacional.cat/sites/default/files/styles/resize_500x500/public/images/art_piece/first_gallery/33735/040142-000_18411.JPG "Anònim. Castella - Griu d'Arlanza - Primer quart del segle XIII [1]")
![image for: Anònim. Castella - Griu d'Arlanza - Primer quart del segle XIII [2]](https://www.museunacional.cat/sites/default/files/styles/resize_500x500/public/images/art_piece/first_gallery/33735/040142-000_18415.JPG "Anònim. Castella - Griu d'Arlanza - Primer quart del segle XIII [2]")
![image for: Anònim. Castella - Griu d'Arlanza - Primer quart del segle XIII [3]](https://www.museunacional.cat/sites/default/files/styles/resize_500x500/public/images/art_piece/first_gallery/33735/040142-000_18493.JPG "Anònim. Castella - Griu d'Arlanza - Primer quart del segle XIII [3]")
![image for: Anònim. Castella - Griu d'Arlanza - Primer quart del segle XIII [4]](https://www.museunacional.cat/sites/default/files/styles/resize_500x500/public/images/art_piece/first_gallery/33735/040142-000_18411_0.JPG "Anònim. Castella - Griu d'Arlanza - Primer quart del segle XIII [4]")
Painting
Most of the Romanesque mural painting that has survived has a religious subject matter, but we also find decoration of a courtly or profane nature in large monastic centres, such as San Pedro de Arlanza in Castile. This fragment comes from a palatine room in the so-called Torre del Tesoro, above the chapter house, where there were zoomorphic representations inspired in the bestiary. Here we see a gryphon, a fabled creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle, in a vigilant pose. The style of the paintings in Arlanza is related to other Spanish works of 1200 art clearly influenced by the English miniature, something that can be seen in the refinement and the precision of the motifs, combined with their monumental nature.
