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> In matters of iconography and content, the whole tradition of biblical > commentaries and glosses, sided by liturgical compendia (Honorius, > Guilelmus Durandus), by historiographic (Historia scholastica) and > hagiographic writings or florilegia, by world chronicles and encyclopedias > (Isidore, Hrabanus, Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Vincent of Beauvais), by > bestiaries (Physiologus, Pseudo-Hugh of St Victor's _De bestiis_, Albertus > Magnus' writings on animals), herbaries and lapidaries (Marbod of Rennes, > Albertus), has certainly influenced most works of arts, and not only works > of the obviously 'learned' species. I would add apocryphal or > pseudepigrahic writings such as the Evangelium Nicodemi or the Visio Sancti > Pauli for their influence on representations of the other world and (in the > case of apocryphal evangelia) of certain episodes of biblical history. I've just caught this thread, so I may be repeating some old ideas. To what extent were iconographic representations of apocalyptic demons, or at least apocalyptic settings (post-conversion) influenced by written sources? (I would throw in some names for discussion here such as the fresco of Hell at Sta. Maria in Piano, the work of Beatus of Liebana and the Vision of Tundal) In the case of northern Europe, conventional biblical models such as the lion may have been translated into creatures more appropriate to the artisan's template of local symbols, for example - the wolf. The artist may have constructed a 'wolf' and implied 'lion' through the shared semiotics of Christian cosmology. This would mask any direct influence on art from the theological or even popular iconographic sphere. Naturally this does not conform to the traditionalist art-historical typologies which state that artists simply replicated existing forms and only changed the stylistic content. There is also the issue of control - to what extent did artisans have control over the iconographic content of their work? Aside from the usual 'shackled by style', what about the requirements of the patron? The range of demonic iconography suggests that there was little actual control of the finished form. Aleks Pluskowski ---------------- Dept of Archaeology University of Cambridge %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%