Double Romanesque Capital, France, 13th Century

France, 13th century

Measures: 26,5 x 38,5 x 14,5 cm.

This rare double capital is decorated with two zoomorphic hybrids: on one side a half-pig (upper body) half-dragon hybrid; on the other side a griffin, half eagle (upper part) half lion. The animals are transformed by circling around the capital.
The transformation as a deviation from the norm must be interpreted as evil.
In the present capital we find the theme of metamorphosis, the transgression of limits through the phenomenon of hybridization: monsters and fantastic animals, redoubled symbols of bestiality allude here to Evil and to hell.
The pig in the Middle Ages evokes gluttony, laziness and lust. The lower part of the body represents a dragon with a dart in the pointed and serpentine tail, an obvious allusion to the devil.
This metamorphosis, which does not correspond to a hybrid “species”, is certainly the fruit of the extreme inventiveness of the artists of the Middle Ages, and demonstrates that hybridization is a dynamic process and not a static concept. The other fantastic animal which appears in the capital is a griffin represented with the body of an eagle grafted on the back of a lion and provided with horse ears; a hybrid of two animals which reign one on earth and the other in the sky.
Like its composite aspect with feathers and hair, the griffin is marked with an ambivalent symbolism: it links the terrestrial power of the lion to the celestial energy of the eagle which makes it a symbol of the duality of human nature.