The object of the present paper is to give a brief account of the Medieval Bestiaries, and their influence in certain spheres of art. The Bestiarium, or Book of Beasts, may be fitly described as a religious Natural History Book. Little or nothing is known about its origin, but there is a probability that it was compiled by a Greek monk of Alexandria about the end of the fourth or early part of the fifth century. ... We do not know whence the artists got their models, but it is unlikely that the figures were done from nature, except perhaps in the case of domestic or easily accessible animals, and then only to a limited extent. This may be better understood if the subjects are divided into three groups; namely, fabulous creatures, which the artists could not have seen; rare or inaccessible animals, which they were not likely to have seen; and domestic or accessible animals, with which they would be well acquainted. ... That the Bestiaries were used in the interest of decorative art as applied to ecclesiastical buildings there is no doubt. Their religious character was ample justification. There is an instance of what is practically a complete Bestiary painted in a church in France, at St. Savin-le-Mont, upon two piers towards the west end of the nave. The subjects, forty in number, are arranged in two vertical rows on each pier, and are coloured and bordered exactly as in the MSS. - [Author]

This is a two part article. Part one was published in 1919 in the British Archaeological Journal Volume 25, and part two was published in 1920 in Volume 26.

Language: English

OCLC: 270095013; DOI: 10.1080/00681288.1919.11894541; DOI: 10.1080/00681288.1919.11894541