A bear poised to bite the serpent-headed tail of a winged and horned dragon: close detail of 12th century Pisan Romanesque sculpture beside entrance to the Torre Pendente or Leaning Tower of Pisa, the tilted campanile or bell tower on the Piazza dei Miracoli at Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. The Latin inscription below records the tower’s foundation in August 1174.
A bear looks poised to bite off the serpent’s head at the end of a dragon’s scaly tail in this close-up view of a superbly detailed 12th century bas-relief above an inscription recording the foundation of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Torre Pendente campanile or bell tower on the Piazza dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) at Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. The full artwork, which also features a bull facing the horned main head of the winged monster, is one of two sculptural friezes flanking the tower entrance. Its left-hand counterpart features a similar dragon between a bear and a ram. The Latin inscription below this right-hand carving translates: “This campanile was founded in the year 1174 in the month of August”. The meaning and significance of both reliefs is open to debate. The dragons, with tails ending in serpent heads, bear some resemblance to the ancient Greek Chimera or Chimaera, a mythical hybrid fire-breathing monster often depicted with a serpent’s head tail. However, a typical chimera had the main head of a lion, sometimes with the head of a goat protruding from its back. In medieval Italian art, chimerical figures sometimes represent forces of nature. Dante’s ‘Inferno’, written in the early 1300s, features a hybrid monster with a human face and a scaly tail. An alternative theory relates to medieval astronomy and astrology, with the animals perhaps representing the constellations Ursa Major (bear), Taurus (bull), Aries (ram) and Draco (dragon). These carvings are among many examples of the distinctive Pisan Romanesque art and architectural style to be found on the Piazza or Campo dei Miracoli. The walled space is dominated by four important religious edifices: the Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta cathedral, its baptistery, the leaning tower, and the Camposanto Monumentale or Monumental Cemetery.
Size: 3650px × 2433px
Location: Leaning Tower of Pisa / Torre Pendente, Piazza dei Miracoli, Pisa, Tuscany, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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