Fantastic Beings and Animals

Dragons, centaurs, gryphons, mermaids and tritons are some of the many fantastic beings that populate the Western imagination. This fantasy world originated in oral and literary narratives developed since Antiquity and has played a prominent role in European art over the centuries.

Mythical figures, existing on the boundary between the real and the unreal, often arose from the need to explain natural phenomena, and their representation posed considerable challenges to the artists’ imagination and creative abilities. To be credible, their appearance must relate to the viewer’s experience. One of the most effective techniques for achieving this objective was to combine different elements, such as, anatomical parts of two non-identical creatures, like the gryphon, represented with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle.

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