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Couple of bird sirens from Arlanza

Museum tags: 
Medieval Romanesque Art
Gallardo Collection
Location: 
Sala 015
Social tags: 
Collection: 
Medieval Romanesque Art
Artist / Maker / Authority: 
Anonymous. Castile

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.

Dating: 
Primer quart del segle XIII
Dimensions: 
60 x 141.5 x 2.8 cm

251556-000_097133.jpg

Acquisition: 

Long-term loan from the Generalitat de Catalunya. National Art Collection. Given by Don Antonio Gallardo Ballart, 2015

Inventory number: 
251556-000