Author: Slomann, Vilhelm [1885-1962]
Title: Bicorporates : Studies in Revivals and Migrations of Art Motifs . Volume 1: Text + Volume 2: Plates
Description: Copenhagen, Munksgaard, 1967. orig. cloth, dustwrapper.. 30x20cm, 260 + (225) pp, TWO VOLUMES. Weighs 2.2 kilos.. approx. 175 pp photoplates.. Minor rubbing. A small tear to dustwrapper. VG. ¶ 'Bicorporates: Studies in Revivals and Migrations of Art Motifs' takes as its starting point the Danish granite baptismal fonts. More than 100 of these fonts have as main motif bicorporate lions, i.e. lions with two bodies and a single head. Where does this strange motif come from and has it been introduced for formal reasons only? This is the underlying theme of the book in which bicorporates of many kinds are studied from various angles. It is shown that the bicorporate sphinx of Antiquity is not the prototype of the Romanesque sphinxes and this fact takes the author into an examination of the Mesopotamian fauna, where the Antique as well as the Romanesque animals originate. The intricate frieze of the Hov font is thoroughly studied going back to its ancestors in Sumerian friezes. Certain characteristic traits in the Romanesque animals are examined such as heads, postures and the contorted animal. The author indicates the relationship between the Chinese T'ao'ties the bicorporates and 'the oblique mouth...." - dustwrapper.

Keywords: Medieval Art History, Iconography, Animal Mythology, Myth, Archaeology, Comparative, , ,