6 h 8 minAudiobook10 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does a dragon on a shield tell you about the people who chose it?
Dragons, griffins, unicorns, sphinxes and mermaids fill shields, church carvings, books and decoration. In Fictitious & Symbolic Creatures in Art, John Vinycomb explores where these imagined animals come from and what people believe they mean. His central subject is heraldry: the signs painted on shields and banners to make their bearers known.
The trail leads through Egypt, Assyria and Greece, where winged and mixed creatures take shape, then into the emblems of knights and noble families. Vinycomb asks why artists return to these beasts and how their meanings travel beyond shields. Architecture, manuscripts, seals and signs become places to look for ideas carried in pictures.
What you’ll discover
- Pictures that carry ideas Explore Vinycomb’s claim that images do the work of words before widespread reading.
- Beasts from ancient lands Trace sphinxes and winged guardian figures through the ancient cultures behind these symbols.
- The language of shields Discover how knights and noble families use imagined creatures to mark their identity.
- Dragons, griffins and unicorns Look closely at familiar monsters and the meanings people attach to their forms.
- Symbols beyond the battlefield Follow these creatures into carvings, manuscripts and the emblems of cities, schools and nations.
Who will love it
Readers who love heraldry, mythology, medieval art and old church carvings, and anyone who enjoys learning why a lion, a dragon or a mermaid looks the way it does on a shield or a sign.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Why people invent monsters
- Errors in nature became emblems
- Posture and colour carry meaning
- Angels, cherubim and the four evangelists
- The dragon from myth to saints and kings
- Serpents, unicorns and flying horses
- Griffin, sphinx, phoenix and harpy
- Beasts of the land that never were
- Creatures of the sea and how to use them
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Fiktive und symbolische Geschöpfe in der Kunst
by John Vinycomb · 1906
Dragons, griffins, unicorns and mermaids march across shields and church walls, and each one carries a meaning.
Challenging5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art is a guide to the strange animals that fill coats of arms, church carvings, coins and old paintings. John Vinycomb, writing in the early twentieth century, collects the lore of angels, dragons, griffins, unicorns, mermaids and many more.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Why people invent monsters
Vinycomb opens with a claim about the human mind. It longs to know, and when facts run out, imagination fills the gap. Caves, forests and seas become stages for beings that poets and artists then give a shape and a name.
He lists the ways old peoples explained nature through creatures. Earthquakes were a waking tortoise, lightning was the breath of demons or the hammer of Thor, and the Chinese saw eclipses as a dragon trying to swallow the sun. Our own words still carry such beliefs, as in lunatic, saturnine and mercurial.
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What is Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art about?
It describes the imaginary and symbolic animals found in heraldry and art, such as angels, dragons, griffins, unicorns, phoenixes and mermaids, and explains where each came from, what it was taken to mean and how it is drawn.
What does the posture of a heraldic animal mean?
Vinycomb argues that posture sets the meaning. A lion rampant rears to fight, a standing lion shows calm majesty, and a couched lion shows watchful rest, so the same animal can say different things.
Why was the unicorn's horn so valuable?
People believed it could detect and cure poison, so kings and monasteries prized it and kept pieces as testers. Examined later, the horns proved to be the tusks of narwhals.
The author
John Vinycomb
1833–1928 · Heraldry scholar and illustrator
John Vinycomb (1833–1928) was an illustrator and writer on heraldry. He worked in Belfast for the printing and publishing firm Marcus Ward & Co. His book Fictitious & Symbolic Creatures in Art was published in 1906. His work included illustration and the study of heraldic symbols.
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