As a Brit I’m familiar with a dog or lion lying at the feet of ‘medieval’ nobles on their tombs inside churches and catherdrals. Today, looking round the St Denis Basilica outside Paris, we noticed that some royals (the tombs there are all of people linked to the royal household) had two animals, one for each foot. At first it seemed to be a male female split, as in this picture (thanks Ponster), but some of the men had two animals too. The ‘Orléans’ family had animals sat on their shins rather than below their feet which was also new for me.
When did the custom of having animal ‘attributes’ poistioned below the feet start ?
What is the significance of the different animals (dog, lion, ferret , dragon/salamander)?
What is the significance of a single animal or a pair (some pairs faced each other some faced opposite directions)?
Thanks
PS the ‘salamanders’ were with an unidentified lady, thought to be Marie de Brienne, last Latin empress of Constantinople - nothing to do with François 1er.
I’ve no idea what the answer to this is. Clicking on your link gave me an “access denied” message. Copying the link, and goin to it from my homepage worked. The guy’s feet are resting on a stone lion, and each of the lady’s feet on a puppydog. What an odd custom!
Lions were pretty strongly associated with royalty, strength, etc. They were considered the king of beasts, and so a lot of people were eager to have themselves associated with such strength and majesty and all those other positive attritibutes. One of the reasons lions are always popping up in Shakespeare in places they’d never be found in the wild, like in the forests of Ardenne, is because old Willie needed something that would be an appropriate challenge to the nobility of his character(s).
This is more a wild guess on my part, but dogs have a lot of the same traits associated with being a good lady. They’re obedient, loyal, love without questioning. I seem to remember from somewhere that female hounds were considered superior hunters, as well.
They might be heraldic animals. Lions were pretty common heraldic device. Here’s a list of different heraldic elements and their meanings. The ones you asked about are below.
Lions: “Bravery, strength, ferocity, and valour” and “Dauntless courage”
Dogs/Hunting Dog: “Courage, vigilance, and loyalty”
Ferret: No entry for ferret. Maybe it’s an otter? “One who lives life to the fullest” Or a beaver? “Industry and perseverance”
Salamander: “Protection”
Dragon: “Valiant defender of treasure; valour and protection”
Wyvern (Dragon with only two legs and armed tail): “Valour and protection”
Hydra (dragon with seven heads): “Conquest of a very powerful enemy”
And for fun, a duck represents a “person of many resources.” I find this strange.
And just a disclaimer: the meanings behind heraldic devices today may not match the meanings used during the medieval period. Here’s a medieval bestiary in which you can look up the animals if you want to go further into how they were perceived in the period.
Thanks Miss Purl McKnittington, it looks like you got it right !
This site in French explains the reasoning behind the lions and dogs in those statues.
At the feet of the statues of females, one normally finds dogs which symbolise fidelity but also guide-dogs to help one through the underworld. The lion, often at the feet of men,represents power, force, but also Resurrection, because a legend ensured that the lion cub opened it’s eyes just three days after its birth.
No problem, Ponster! I’m glad to see that the meanings carry over.
In the bestiary that I linked to in my second post (more a compilation of several bestiaries and put into modern English, really), it says this about the lion legend:
The use of a lion in the Narnia books makes more and more sense every day.
WAG It started with preChristian traditions of burying people with material wealth. This included killing the hounds and burying them at a man’s feet. With the spread of Christianity and a different idea of an afterlife, the image of dog was substituted for an actual dog. The original meaning was lost and the dog became a heraldic symbol, which opened the way for otters, salamanders and the rest.
Not bad DocCathode , not bad. It’s logical enough to keep me happy. But … the earlier (10th century ?) tombs in St Denis don’t have any animals. Maybe ‘christianity’ wasn’t yet confident enough to allow the incorporation of animals, maybe they arrived with the ‘symbolism’ that came into favour with the idea of ‘courtly love’.
Mad stuff about the Lion Miss Purl McKnittington - old CS must have been aware of those ideas eh ?
