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Relief with Griffin, 2nd half of 13th century
Byzantine (Greece?)
Marble; H. 23 1/2 in. (59.7 cm)
Purchase, Rogers Fund and Jeannette and Jonathan Rosen Gift, 2000 (2000.81)
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Description
This commanding image of a griffin with its head turned and its wings flexed is an exceptionally fine example of monumental stone carving of the Late Byzantine, or Palaiologan, era. The panel, worked in low relief, resembles an elaborate Byzantine silk in its arrangement of the creature within a roundel. Small Greek crosses at the midpoint of the border on all four sides identify it as having been made for Christian use. Christians of this era still considered the mythical griffins to be guardian figures, often of the dead, and symbols of power and authority, thanks in part to their legendary role in the life of Alexander the Great.
Possibly, the panel was once part of a tomb similar to those known from northern Greece that were carved in a style influential in Serbia and the Balkans. On tombs griffins may have been meant both to protect the people buried within and to symbolize their royal lineage. The fleurs-de-lis on the griffin's shoulder and haunch typify the era's complex cultural interplay, as similar motifs are found in contemporary Islamic and Crusader depictions of animals. The panel will be displayed to great advantage with other important stone carvings in the Museum's new Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries for Byzantine Art.
(Entry written by Helen C. Evans)
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