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