Alinari Photo.]
CHRISTIAN EMBLEM. PEACOCKS AND VINE. SARCOPHAGUS (ST. APOLLINARE IN CLASSE, RAVENNA).
Brogi Photo.]
FRA ANGELICO. ANGEL (UFFIZI, FLORENCE).
Brogi Photo.]
FRA ANGELICO. ANGEL (UFFIZI, FLORENCE).
No less distinct in its grotesqueness was the mediæval devil, although its origin was very probably the satyr of ancient classical art. The Roman satyr, with goat-legs and hoofs, bearded head, horns, and tail, furnishes, in fact, a very close prototype; and, being banned long ago as pagan when Christianity was in hand-to-hand conflict with paganism, would be sufficient to associate such a form with evil. There are some fiends represented in Orcagna's fresco, "The Triumph of Death," which are quite satyr-like, despite talons and bats' wings. Although with the Greeks the great god Pan is a mild and gentle deity enough, and though of the earth earthy, in a sense, yet as symbolical of spontaneous nature, and simple animal existence, piping on his reeds by the riverside, he always remains a favourite with the poet and the artist. Signorelli, for instance, in a beautiful picture (which our National Gallery somehow missed the opportunity of acquiring), gives a fine presentment of him.
It is interesting to compare the mediæval embodiments of evil with the ancient Persian symbolical representation of a combat of a king with a griffin, which may represent the conflict of Ormuzd and Ahrimanes as the typical principles or embodied powers of good and of evil.