Heraldry as art: An account of its development and practice, chiefly in England

by G. W. Eve

Fig 96..—Sejant.

Fig. 97.—Couchant.

The expression of vigour is the most important individual quality to strive after in the treatment of heraldic animals, the line of the back and loins may be made to express lithe strength, and power be suggested by the massive shoulder, with the powerful fore-leg tapering to the wide-stretched and vigorous paw. Dignity and life should be in the pose of the leonine head and mane, and broad harmonious effect in the whole treatment. The widely spread toes were sometimes very much exaggerated, as in the Arms of John of Eltham (Fig. 98), but in character and drawing were much nearer the natural facts than the foot of a quiescent lion might lead one to imagine. This may be seen on a small scale in the domestic cat when she stretches her leg with her claws protruding.

When the lions of the later Gothic type lost the vigorous qualities of the earlier examples the toes lost their power and became like radiating leaf-forms.

Fig. 98.—Arms of Prince John of Eltham.
Westminster Abbey.

The setting-on of the tail may also help the expression of vigorous life, its junction with the body being well marked instead of being allowed to flow softly out of the line of the back. This is well shown in Dürer’s lion at Fig. 99, that splendid example of the best kind of Renaissance heraldry whose fine drawing, well-balanced design and beautiful technique have caused its frequent instance as a striking work of heraldic art. The illustration is reproduced from the very fine impression in the National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Both these examples are excellent for their good decorative distribution, the former shield being probably the best extant instance of that necessary quality.

In the lions of various periods it will be seen how the type altered from time to time, from that of the thirteenth century MSS., which possesses a considerable amount of a natural leonine shape, through the attenuated beast of the later mediaeval period down to the Renaissance form in its two somewhat dissimilar styles: that of Germany, from which modern German heraldry is derived, which shows a strong survival of Gothic influence; and that of Italy, from which appears to have been drawn the heraldry of the rest of Europe until the still recent Gothic revival here.

In modern German heraldry the lions have become so over-elaborated that in many instances the prevalent effect is one of fluffiness. Too much is made of the hair, especially in the legs, which are sometimes much more suggestive of the well-feathered legs of a dorking fowl than of the clean and powerful, though hairy, limb of a lion; and with the lost suggestion of vital energy goes any symbolic dignity that it expresses.