Animals in Art and Thought: To the End of the Middle Ages

Description

Originally published in 1971, Animals in Art and Thought discusses the ways in which animals have been used by man in art and literature. The book looks at how they have been used to symbolise religious, social and political beliefs, as well as their pragmatic use by hunters, sportsmen, and farmers. The book discusses these various attitudes in a survey which ranges from prehistoric cave art to the later Middle Ages. The book is especially concerned with uncovering the latent, as well as the manifest meanings of animal art, and presents a detailed examination of the literary and archaeological monuments of the periods covered in the book. The book discusses the themes of Creation myths of the pagan and Christian religion, the contribution of the animal art of the ancient contribution of the animal art of the ancient Orient to the development of the Romanesque and gothic styles in Europe, the use of beast fables in social or political satire, and the heroic associations of animals in medieval chivalry. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Original Title Page Original Copyright Page Contents Editors' Foreword and Acknowledgments Author's Preface Photographic Acknowledgments Part 1 The Ancient World 1 The hunter's art and mythology The rock paintings and engravings The mythology of the hunter's ritual 2 Animal art in the ancient near east The neolithic revolution Continuity and change in ritual North Africa and Egypt Western Asia Contrasting patterns of spirituality: the New Year festivals Contrasting types of animal imagery Gilgamesh and the beast-man Enkidu The monuments Prehistoric pottery in Asia and Egypt Sumerian animal art Egyptian animal art Assyrian and Minoan animal art 3 Animal art in the civilizations of Greece and Rome The classical style sequence The transition from magic to symbolism 4 Barbaric animal styles The barbaric style sequence The Jemdet Nasr seals The bronzes of Luristan The Scythian animal style Early Celtic art Germanic animal ornament Hiberno-Saxon manuscripts and crosses Viking art Symbolic associations The social setting Pre-heroic animal associations in barbaric art Animal associations of the hero The convergence of Christian and heroic animal symbolism Part 2 The early Middle Ages 5 The Carolingian Renaissance Introduction The Hexaemeron tradition Typology The monuments 6 Late Anglo-Saxon animal art: the 'Caedmon' and 'Aelfric' manuscripts 7 Germany, France and Spain, c. 950-1050; the Apocalyptic tradition Schools of illumination c. A.D. 1000 The Apocalyptic tradition Apocalyptic animal symbols and their oriental sources The pictorial tradition 8 Byzantium and Italy The Macedonian renaissance Rome, Monte Cassino, Sicily and Venice 9 Romanesque and early Gothic animal art Introduction The survival of the oriental 'heraldic' style Romanesque adaptations of the oriental 'heraldic' style Apulia Lombardy Lombard animal imagery in Germany Manuscript sources of Romanesque animal ornament Spain and Languedoc Beast imagery in the Norman and Angevin realms The symbolic character of Romanesque and early Gothic animal ornament Part 3 The later Middle Ages 10 The scientific revival and the beast fables The scientific revival The Latin phase The transformation of the bestiary text Greek science retrieved through the Arabs Adelard of Bath Giraldus Cambrensis Thirteenth century zoology Popular science Alexander Neckam Bartholomew the Englishman Fables and beast satires Twelfth century fable collections Nigel Wireker's Speculum Stultorum [Mirror of Fools) Odo of Cheriton and the Latin sermon collections The Owl and the Nightingale The Fox and the Wolf Political satires of the fourteenth century William Langland John Gower Chaucer Conclusion 11 English animal art of the later Middle Ages The bestiary illustrations Gothic animal art Manuscripts of the thirteenth century: initials and margins Birds of the Apocalypse Manuscripts of the fourteenth century: Psalters and Books of Hours The Pepysian sketchbook Naturalism in England and Italy Domestic art: the Longthorpe Tower Popular art: roof bosses and misericords 12 Continental animal art of the later Middle Ages Introduction St. Francis's sermon to the birds and the Christmas presepio Frederick II's treatise 'De arte venandi cum avibus' Animal identifications in chivalry Heraldry Courtly love Courtly hunting rites Conclusion: the movement towards naturalism Epilogue Notes Bibliography General index Index of animals