This intricately carved arch is said to have come from a twelfth-century church in Narbonne, in southwestern France. It is composed of seven blocks of marble on which are carved eight fantastic beasts, comprising an abbreviated visual bestiary. Moving from left to right, we see: a manticore with a man's face, a lion's body, and a scorpion's tail; a pelican, who pierces her own breast so that her blood feeds her young, symbolizing Christ's death and resurrection; a basilisk, a cross between a cock and a scorpion that can kill with its looks; a harpy luring men to their doom with her beautiful voice; a griffin, which has the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion; an amphisbaena or dragon, which can form its body into a circle; a centaur with drawn bow; and a lion, who erases his tracks with his tail to elude hunters, symbolizing Christ's incarnation. All of these creatures, whether imaginary or realistic, were familiar to many people during the Middle Ages, and all had their specific lessons to impart.
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Title:Arch with Beasts
Date:ca. 1150–75
Geography:Made in Languedoc-Rousillon, France
Culture:French
Medium:Marble
Dimensions:40 in. × 74 in. × 10 1/4 in. (101.6 × 188 × 26 cm)
Classification:Sculpture-Architectural
Credit Line:John Stewart Kennedy Fund, 1922
Accession Number:22.58.1a
Eight different creatures inhabit the seven blocks of this enchanting carved archway. All but two come from the imagination, merging parts of different animals found in nature. Beginning at far left, we see a manticore, a fantastic creature with the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion. Following the curve of the arch, we next see a pelican, followed by a basilisk, which combines the head of a rooster, the body of a dragon, and the tail of a snake. The arch’s keystone depicts a harpy, which has the body of a bird and the head of a woman, standing back-to-back with a griffin, a lion-eagle hybrid. Next is an amphisbaena – a snake with a head at each end of its long, slender body. Finally, a centaur armed with bow and arrow faces a crowned lion. Each creature completely fills the shallow field of the relief, with paws or talons occasionally curling over the lower edges of the blocks. Carved on the undersides of the blocks, lush leaves add textural richness, echoing the many curling tails and tangled bodies on the arch’s outer face.
The variety of creatures depicted on the arch has prompted its comparison with the medieval bestiary. Bestiaries were illustrated books describing the natural world that, among other things, constituted an extensive trove of animal lore, though much of the information (and many of the creatures!) had no basis in nature. Though the medieval bestiary tradition had roots in antiquity, the books became popular during the 12th and 13th centuries. The behavior of the bestiary’s animal subjects generally related to some aspect of Christian belief, and their habits could express powerful spiritual symbolism. For example, the pelican was understood to revive its young, born dead, by piercing its breast with its beak to shed its own blood, prompting an association with Christ and the Resurrection. The bestiary texts framed the gifts of nature in terms of divine plan, providing moral instruction along the way.
While bestiary texts could have inspired the creatures on The Cloisters’ arch, animal lore (spiritually-inspired or otherwise) was so popular during this period that the carved images would have been engaging bearers of meaning for their medieval viewers on their own and need not be viewed as dependent on a particular kind of book. To describe the arch solely in terms of the bestiary is to detract from its actual function as the decorative framework of an architectural passage. For example, the depiction of a number of ferocious beasts could have served to "guard" a threshold. Such images could also potentially say something about the building or room that displayed them.
The question of where the arch came from remains unanswered. Prior its purchase by the Met, it belonged to a private collection from outside of Narbonne in southeastern France and could have come from Narbonne itself. A prosperous Mediterranean port city, 12th-century Narbonne was home to many fine Romanesque buildings. The city’s church of Saint-Paul-Serge, for example, boasted a portal framed by a sculpted arch very similar to the one in The Cloisters’ collection. Alternatively, The Cloisters’ arch could have come from a domestic setting, perhaps decorating the exterior of a wealthy family’s fine house. While few examples of domestic architecture survive from the 12th century, the sculpted window frames of a late Romanesque house in the southern French town of Burlats compare favorably. The animal imagery would have been appropriate for either a church or a home, and its significance would have derived from the kind of space in which it was shown.
Selected references:
Little, Charles T., David L. Simon, and Leslie Bussis Tait. "Romanesque Sculpture in North American Collections. XXV. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Part V: Southwestern France." Gesta 26, no. 1 (1987). no. 6, pp. 65-67, fig. 6.
Schrader, J. L. "A Medieval Bestiary." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 44, no. 1 (Summer 1986). p. 24, 46, 49.
Entry by Julia Perratore, Assistant Curator, Department of Medieval Art and The Met Cloisters
[2020; adapted from draft Barnet Sculpture Catalogue]
Said to come from a building in Narbonne; Louis Arnaud, Avignon ; [ Demotte Inc., Paris and New York (sold 1922)]
Scholle, Hardinge. "A Romanesque Archivolt." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, o.s., 18, no. 1 (January 1923). pp. 9–10.
Randall Jr., Richard H. A Cloisters Bestiary. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1960. pp. 34, 35, 40, 41, 45.
Debidour, Victor-Henry. Le bestiaire sculpté du moyen âge en France. Collection "grandes études d'art et d'archéologie". Strasbourg: Arthaud, 1961. p. 9, fig. 1.
Verdier, Philippe. "Dominus Potens in Praelio." Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 43 (1982). pp. 43–44, fig. 11.
Schrader, J. L. "A Medieval Bestiary." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 44, no. 1 (Summer 1986). p. 24, 46, 49.
Shepard, Mary B. Europe in the Middle Ages, edited by Charles T. Little, and Timothy B. Husband. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. pp. 66–67, pl. 59.
Little, Charles T., David L. Simon, and Leslie Bussis Tait. "Romanesque Sculpture in North American Collections. XXV. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Part V: Southwestern France." Gesta 26, no. 1 (1987). no. 6, pp. 65–67, fig. 6.
Young, Bonnie. A Walk Through The Cloisters. 5th ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988. pp. 53–54.
Benton, Janetta Rebold. The Medieval Menagerie: Animals in the Art of the Middle Ages. New York: Abbeville Press, 1992. pp. 21–23, fig. 9.
Boss-Favre, Myrielle. La sculpture figurée des arcs romans de France. 2nd ed. Zurich: Editions du Grand Midi, 2000. pp. 79–80, fig. 246.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. no. 7, pp. 32, 193.
Norris, Michael. Medieval Art: A Resource for Educators. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. no. 14, pp. 65–67.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. 75th Anniversary ed. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. p. 30.
Cohen, Meredith. "The bestiary beyond the book." In Book of beasts: the bestiary in the medieval world, edited by Elizabeth Morrison. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2019. pp. 178–79, fig. 61.
Morrison, Elizabeth, ed. Book of beasts: the bestiary in the medieval world. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2019. pp. 178–79, fig. 61.
Little, Charles T., and Miguel Ayres de Campos. The McCarthy Collection: Sculpture. Vol. IV. London: Ad Ilissvm, 2024. fig. 3.2. A, p. 191.
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