1. © Louvre Lens / F Lovino
Animals and their myths
Until mid-January, the Louvre Lens (in Lens) present an exhibition titled "Fantastic Animals", and while the show presents a variety of objects, it also questions the definition of animals and fantastic animals which inspired artists for centuries. Species such as dragons, griffins, sphinxes, unicorns and many others are seeing through films and cartoons, but who are they? Where do they come from? And what do they mean to us?
While they share a real power to fascinate people (especially childrens), they have a variety of representation, from gigantic species to deformed bodies and sometimes a mixture between "classical" animals and mystical figures. They also embody the elementary forces of nature: waters, fire, earth and air while presenting their violence, beauty and excess to all artists.
The present show is divided into sections, showcasing more or less 250 works ranging from sculptures, paintings and objets d’art, as well as films and music – ranging from Antiquity to the present day. It has been curated by Hélène Bouillon (chief heritage curator, director of conservation, exhibitions and publications at the Louvre-Lens), Jeanne-Thérèse Bontinck (project manager, Heritage, City of Art and History, Périgueux), Caroline Tureck (head of research and documentation, Louvre-Lens) and Yaël Pignol, (educator Heritage & Gardens – Scientific advisor, Cité des Electriciens, Bruay-la-Buissière). The design and scenography of the show were made by Mathis Boucher (architect and exhibition designer, Louvre-Lens).
2. Sceau-cylindre figurant des lions et un aigle léontocéphale, 3300-3000 avant J-C ©RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre) - Franck Raux
The first section of the exhibition introduce us to "sacred terrors", thus it present the oldest works from the exhibition dating back between 45 000 and 12 000 BC. The works present imaginary animas, which decorated the caves of the Upper Palaeolithic, thus starting the myths of fantastic animals.
Whilst the exhibition started with a chimera, a contemporary work from the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, this kind of works were not familiar until the end of the Neolithic period. And while this animals arise in the imagination of the society, the first cities and populations arise too. For example, the Mesopotamian society and iconography were deeply inspired by this "world" and the combination between animals and human bodies.
The second section of the show is titled "Founding combats", and it present the link between those beats and the antiquity. While the first mythological texts were written during the 3rd millennium BC, in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), those stories were told by the Canaanites, the habitants of the Levantine region. They were inspired by the monsters they found in the Bible.
Later, the Greeks also borrowed from Eastern mythology and influences Latin authors, and later Western artists to create they own world of animals and magical creatures.
At the time, those stories were told orally, and they written down on clay tablets. Most of those written myths focus on the battle of divine heroes: Ninurta, Ningirsu and Marduk with creatures like Asag, a demon that copulates with the mountain and Tiamat, goddess of primordial saltwater, who gave birth to monstrous snakes and man-animal hybrids. Some of those stories became true works of arts, made by artists of the time such as a cast of the decoration of the monumental doorway of the palace of Arslantepe in Turkey which present the duel between the storm gods Baal and Teshup and sea serpents.
"Magic Creatures" is the third section of the show, and it present the link those creatures had with magic and imagination. At the time of the creation of those fantastic animals, they were thought to have superpowers, physically of course, but also in their bodies. Thus, those animals were helping people to heal, giving protection to their owner and divination to them and their circle.
They were then drawn and put on magic amulets, statuettes, masks, stones and ivories to give the illusion of healing people's bodies. But their effigies were activated to prevent certain diseases or to ensure a good birth or a successful harvest. "apotropaic", the super powers caused by those animals will be passed to other generations orally or via scholarly libraries, to all generations and all classes, rich or poor.
One key example of theses animals is the Mesopotamian Pazuzu, who became very popular in the 1st millennium BC. He was heavily represented in history, because he was worn around the neck by the most vulnerable people, like pregnant womens and babies, for their protection. Sometimes it was covered with precious metals and crystals, but his figure was endowed with four wings, a bird of prey’s talons and a scorpion tail.
Those animals were also guarding the cities, temples and, by extension, all of creation and the cosmic order. Most of the time, entrance of temples we're kept away from chaos with the addition of sculpture or/and paintings of those heroes, thus they watched over the frontier between the world of the living and that of the dead.
The next section is dedicated to one of the most important and recognisable representations of fantastic animals, the dragons. While it became a common figure in our imagination, we always forgot he never existed, even tho he had different forms and different names in different context and civilisations.
While the world "dragon" came from the Greek term drakôn, meaning "one who stares", its body is actually link to the iconography of a snake. At the time, giant serpents and reptilian monsters were numerous, and they appeared in legends all over the world due to their calm, but also their power of the aquatic element, thus their were linked to the subterranean world.
Over the centuries the dragon's became codified, first in European art and then in the visual arts of popular culture. But the dragon is still one of the fabulous animals that is most prevalent in fantasy, an artistic and literary genre characterised by the presence of the supernatural and magic.
3. Salvador Dalí, La tentation de Saint Antoine, © Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (Joan Geley) / © Fondació Gala-Salvador Dalí / ADAGP
The fifth section of the exhibition present works "On the fringes of reality", where we can see numerous visions of wonderful worlds, alternative norms and at the edge of reality and the imagination.
During antiquity, those creatures were mostly represented in uninhabited areas, on the edges of civilizations of Egypt. With those inhospitable regions, mountains and deserts, those animals were placed on the fringes between this world and the beyond, the world of god and even. Those creatures were as diverse as Indian unicorns, Ethiopian griffins, basilisks, and dragons of all kinds.
At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, the rest of those animals were displayed in curiosity cabinets with bones, teeth and even entire bodies.
Slowly, but surely, the visitors encounter modern picture, encompassing the great voyages of exploration and the globalisation of knowledge led to the disappearance of unicorns, dragons and griffins from maps. But artists took advantage of it and created female sphinxes, dragons and demons were all representations of the femme fatale, such as "The Sphinx’s Kiss" by Franz von Stück and "Oedipus the Traveller" painted by Gustave Moreau.
The last section of the exhibition titled "Re-enchanting the world" present key element in today’s pop culture, from children’s literature to performance, cinema and video games. Thus showcasing the timeless characters of those fictional creatures and the important role reveals the narrative and symbol.
While the existence of fantastic animals was called into question by the great voyages of exploration, Renaissance scholars began to highlight the inconsistencies in ancient accounts and in reports of travellers who claimed to have seen unicorns and dragons. Thus, in the 18th century, the Romantic movement in art, celebrated human feelings in the face of inexplicable mysteries, drew on these legends and superstitions.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Louvre Lens
Date: 27.9.2023 - 15.1.2024
Curators: Helène Bouillon, Jeanne-Thérèse Bontinck, Caroline Tureck, Yaël Pignol and Mathis Boucher
Ticket: Available online OR at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Louvre Lens
99 rue Paul Bert
62 300 Lens
Phone: +33 (3) 21 18 62 62