Lillian Sellati
Beauties and Beasts: Physical Reflections of an Internal State of Being
Many of the fantastic creatures that populate medieval bestiaries and illuminated
manuscripts have their roots in Classical Greek mythology and artwork. Similarly, the medieval
Christian cultural conception and artistic expression of beauty developed from a preceding Greek
idea. Specifically, early medieval thinkers such as Peter the Venerable of Cluny, Hugh of St-
Victor, and Pope Gregory the Great, explored the notion that the outer state of a person’s body
mirrored the inner state of their soul (Dale 403-08). According to this idea, morally good
individuals looked beautiful, while physical deformity signified a sinner. Despite the fact that
this belief conflicts with St. Augustine’s assertion that all Divine Creation is beautiful, the
perceived connection between beauty and goodness became deeply entwined with Christian
religious doctrine. A similar medieval concept with Classical roots—physiognomy—holds that a
person’s looks, and therefore his character, can be determined by the climate where he lives and
the stars under which he is born. This pseudo-science allowed for the classification of entire
races based on geography, and therefore became an important political tool. Powerful
individuals, such as the Pope, wielded this tool through edifying religious and religiously-
influenced secular artwork. For example, a 15th century illumination titled Health Man by
Bartholomew the Englishman (figure 1) supposedly depicts the perfect representation of male
beauty. However, despite its typically medieval schematic style of drawing and coloring, the
artist still uses Classical Greek proportions to portray ideal beauty. At its heart, the medieval
European belief that physical attributes reflect inner vices or virtues remains attributable to
Classical perceptions of beauty that later individuals adapted to fit Christian ideals.
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Medieval Christians attached moral implications to the features of both humans and
animals. Thus, encyclopedic bestiaries quickly developed from Pliny’s entirely secular natural
histories into a popular method used to convey religious doctrine (Hassig 138). Two fairly
elaborate examples of this practice include the lion and the dragon. These beasts stood as
opposing symbols of good and evil respectively; however, each individually retained positive
and negative implications. The lion, historically a symbol of courage and kingship (Kiilerich
88), was superimposed upon the image of Christ, whom the Bible identifies the as King of the
Jews. Simultaneously, many holy men and women associated the lion’s fanged maw with the
devouring Hellmouth, which serves as the entrance for damned souls into the depths of Hell, due
to the commonly quoted Psalms 22.21 “Save me from the mouth of the lion” (Dale 422). The
dragon had a similarly dichotomous connotation in medieval Europe. In international folklore
dating back to antiquity, the dragon represented the powerful natural forces which deeply
influenced the lives of commoners. However, the Christian association of dragons with the
Devil, and with evil in general, eventually became the most prevalent interpretation of these
creatures during the Middle Ages (Bruckner 32).
Likewise, the Church assigned specific moral characteristics to each monstrous race
included in bestiaries. One such race was the Panotti, a humanoid race with gigantic ears.
Christians saw these ears as emblematic of the Word of God. This gave images of the Panotti
both positive and negative connotations. On one hand, since the Panotti were eminently capable
of hearing God, they often stood as a symbol of piety. On the other hand, the Panotti remained
pagans though they had heard the Word and therefore must be scorned all the more.1 Likewise,
the Cynocephali, or dog-headed men, also had multiple moralizing interpretations. In medieval
artwork, Cynocephali could represent quarrelsome individuals, who did nothing but bark; mute 1 In-class discussion, ARTH 1136, spring 2011.
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individuals, who could not speak the language of humans; or pious individuals, who wore rough
clothing as a form of penance. However, regardless of the many possible meanings, the
Cynocephali most often presented the people symbolized in a negative light. Furthermore,
according to John Friedman, they regularly symbolized Jews in medieval artwork (61),
transferring this negative connotation to the common perception of an entire race of people.
The practice of physiognomy provided another way for medieval leaders to group
together political and/or religious enemies and depict them in a pejorative manner. According to
physiognomy, an individual’s character could be divined based on physical attributes. In turn, a
person’s looks depended on details such as the climate of their homeland, the stars prominent at
their birth, and the balance of humors in their body. For example, the chapter devoted to ears in
Secreta secretorum, a popular medieval volume which contained some physiognomic
information, states: “big ears mark a man robbed of his senses, small ears are a sign of evil,
slightly erect ears (like a dog’s) are the hallmark of the foolish, while ‘sufficiently large’ ears
belong to the strong and virtuous” (qtd. in Strickland 38). Unsurprisingly, the perfect features
only graced those who lived in the same region as the individual citing physiognomy for his or
her political gain. Thus, when Hippocrates first introduced physiognomy and Aristotle referred
to regional stereotypes in his Politics around 350BCE, Greece was the ideal place to live. Later,
during the Middle Ages, this perfect region shifted north to center on western Europe (Strickland
36-37).
When physiognomy or bestiaries compared a group of humans to an animal, such as a
dog, it was a profound insult with deep religious implications. According to the Christian
Church, men must comport themselves in a manner befitting a pious and civilized human. Hugh
of St-Victor, a 12th century French theologian, describes the reason for this restriction in his
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manual, De institutione novitiorum, “Just as inconstancy of the mind brings forth irregular
motions of the body, so also the mind is strengthened and made constant when the body is
restrained through the process of discipline . . . . The perfection of virtue is attained when the
members of the body are governed and ordered through the inner custody of the mind” (qtd. in
Dale 407). Therefore, anyone who slouched or acted with undue exuberance put himself in
danger of succumbing to sinfulness and more terrifyingly, of becoming a monstrous beast.
This fear resonates in artistic form on a series of early 12th century CE cloister capitals in
the Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa in southwestern France. One particular capital shows the
horrifying degeneration of a man into an ape. The first side of the capital shows a clothed,
athletic-looking man standing upright (figure 2). Moving clockwise, the man squats naked with
his hands planted on his knees (figure 3). Next, the man is shown in the same pose but with the
addition of a long tangled beard. Finally, the male figure has completely transformed into a
hairy-chested ape, squatting in the same lewd position as the previous two sides (figure 4).
Despite their apprehension, medieval viewers were in no danger of actually turning into
wild animals. However, they were in danger of their inner virtue being judged based upon their
outer features. This idea that the body could function as a “map” of the state of one’s soul,
asserted by Peter the Venerable of Cluny (1092-1156) among others, when combined with the
older notion that goodness was intrinsically connected with truth and beauty, became very
detrimental to certain members of the laity. For example, people in the middle ages shunned and
scorned those afflicted with leprosy because they believed the deformity stemmed from the
victim’s sinful nature (Schelberg 35-50).
This association among beauty, truth, and goodness as opposed to ugliness and evil
nature began much earlier than the early 12th century outpouring of thought regarding the
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reflection of the soul’s state by physical features. Jan Aertsen points out that Pseudo-Dionysius
the Areopagite, who wrote in the late 5th and early 6th century CE, contributed significantly to this
concept. Elaborating upon an earlier idea by the Greek philosopher Plato, Pseudo-Dionysius
explored the connection between good, light, beauty, and love in respect to the Divine. His
conclusion stated that all good things are beautiful and all beautiful things are good (Aertsen
421). He also suggested that beauty is the ratio of splendor or light to clarity or proportion and,
in turn, the religious thinker Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) equated clarity with truth (Aertsen
426). Thus, medieval Christians saw beauty, goodness, and truth as fundamentally entwined.
Even though everything created by God was considered beautiful, some things looked ugly in
comparison to others—as St. Augustine said, “The beauty of an animal is deformed in
comparison to the beauty of man”—and some people became deformed by sinful thoughts and
actions.
Like the triad of beauty, truth, and goodness, the idea that people’s vices and virtues
reflected onto their physical form also evolved from a Classical source. The idea originated in
Archaic Greece, with the production of the kourai.2 According to Larissa Bonfante, these statues
represented the young aristocrat, the epitome of beauty and nobility (549). The smooth, serene
features of the kouros type also came to symbolize eternal youth, strength, vigor, and divinity
(Kiilerich 87). The leonine type evolved from the kouros type and became closely associated
with Alexander the Great. Alexander’s court sculptor, Lysippus, likely chose that type for
Alexander’s portraiture deliberately because the Greeks believed it depicted the perfect male
beauty. Common facial features associated with the leonine type include a clean-shaven face,
2 Kourai (singular = kouros) were statues of nude, athletic looking, young men with serene facial features. The body movement – one foot in front of the other, caught in the act of striding forwards – was influenced by contemporary Egyptian sculpture. Kourai were made of stone and were used as funerary markers or votive offerings. Their size varied depending on their function.
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shining deep-set eyes, and hair in the anastolé style, which included short, riotous curls falling
partially over the forehead, considered reminiscent of a lion’s mane. In addition to this, most
statues of Alexander looked up and over the left shoulder. These details represented youth and
vitality; courage and kingship; bravery; and a connection to the divine (Kiilerich 88). Due to
these inherent associations, Alexander’s portraiture carried a wealth of meaning to its viewers
and the leonine type remained a popular symbol of male beauty, heroic courage, greatness, and
Alexander himself until the fall of Classical civilization.
Although the leonine type did not survive in medieval art, other Classical artistic
expressions of beauty did. These persisting influences included the standard dimensions used to
portray the perfect human. During the transitional stage between the Archaic and Classical
periods of art history, Greek artists discovered that in order to create the most realistic and
visually pleasing human form, the artist must elongate the body and make the head smaller
(Perdley 309). These same dimensions, which made the sculptures of the High Classical period
some of the most popular and aesthetically pleasing in history, also appear in the medieval
illumination Health Man by Bartholomew the Englishman (figure 1). This image depicts what
medieval European artists considered to be the quintessential representation of male health and
beauty. The image consists of a fair featured man with an attenuated figure and small head in the
foreground; he is bare except for a diaphanous white loincloth and he clearly has no genitals.
Showing a continued awareness of physiognomy, the man’s surroundings depict the temperate
forest climate of north-western Europe, where all those with ideal features reside.3
In contrast to Health Man, the Greek epitome of male beauty culminated in the heroic
nude. Beginning in the Archaic period, Greek culture viewed male nudity as a sign of strength
instead of shame. Men who exercised, fought, or competed in athletics while nude, far surpassed 3 Strickland, 39
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any barbarian contender because the Greeks participated in a supremely vulnerable state. The
courage and fortitude associated with this practice became a source of extreme pride for the
Greeks (Bonfante 556). Therefore, during the Archaic age, Greek artwork began to show the
Greeks in the heroic nude and their opponents in feminizing costumes. The western pediment of
the Archaic Temple of Aphaia at Aegina clearly demonstrates this trend: the darkly tanned nude
Greek heroes contrast sharply with the pale skinned, brightly clothed Persians in their phrygian
caps (figure 5). This artistic trend continued into the Classical and Hellenistic periods when
young male leonine type figures such as Praxiteles’ Apollo Sauroktonos became the vogue
(figure 6). Like the kourai of the Archaic period, these statues symbolized the vitality, courage,
and power of a young male warrior or athlete. It should be noted that until the Hellenistic period,
all Greek representations of beauty were young and male. The first full-scale statue of a nude
female, Praxiteles’ Aphrodite of Knidos, did not appear until around 350BCE and even then the
woman stands in a vulnerable pose, trying to grab her clothes and hide her genitals (Pedley
308).4 Furthermore, outside of art, females never went unclothed unless for a religious or ritual
ceremony (Bonfante 559).
Although medieval Europe assimilated many Greek ideas about beauty, they never
admired the nude human form. Like all of those ancient cultures except for Greece, medieval
Christians saw nudity as a sign of poverty, shame, slavery, and humiliation. In the Book of
Genesis in the Old Testament it states that after Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge,
their first action was to create loincloths out of leaves to hide their shameful nudity. Ancient
civilizations also discouraged nudity because they believed it had magical implications. For
4 It should be noted that there is some precedent for nude depictions of fertility goddesses in the Ancient world (Ishtar and smaller depictions of aphrodite). If it were a mortal woman shown in the nude there would likely have been even more controversy over the statue than there was (the government who commissioned the statue refused to accept it because the woman was nude).
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example, many Roman fauces5 included wall paintings of an engorged phallus in order to ward
off the evil eye. This image also served as to promote fertility, prosperity, and luck when
depicted in other rooms of the house (Bonfante 544).
Contrary to the bifurcated implications of nudity and genitalia in other cultures, medieval
Christians always viewed both with distaste bordering on horror. In medieval artwork, nudity
symbolized sinful and animalistic behavior, as a return to the cloister capitals of Saint-Michel-
de-Cuxa will show. When depicting entertainers or other sinful figures, artists displayed them as
grotesquely naked individuals in the throes of raucous merriment (Dale 412). As for genitalia,
medieval artists never include it in religious artwork, even when depicting a sinful individual.
The closest that medieval European religious artwork gets to scandalous nudity is in the figure of
luxuria, a bare-breasted female anthropomorphic personification of lust.6 Luxuria often appears
within scenes of the Last Judgment. She stands among the naked figures of damned souls who
have been devoured by the gaping Hellmouth (figure 7). This treatment of nudity in art, the
saved – richly clothed and the damned – shamefully naked, starkly contrasts with the Greek use
of heroic nudity in temple pediments, such as in the Temple of Aphaia mentioned previously.
In light of the general aversion to nakedness in world cultures, it is unsurprising that
Health Man wears a loincloth. Furthermore, the long-held belief in the magic associated with
genitalia explains the lack thereof in medieval Christian artwork. Genitalia were simply too
powerful a symbol to be permitted in a religion which condemned the practice of magic.
Nevertheless, other remnants of the Classical world survived into medieval times, the connection
between beauty and goodness, the Classical dimensions of beauty, and the association between
5 The fauces is the first room in a Roman house (the transitory space between the outside and the inside where people were especially vulnerable to evil magics). 6 Medieval Christians considered female sex to be the root of all sin and therefore the most tempting and dangerous for both men and women.
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bodily features and the state of the soul included. Medieval Christian thinkers innovatively
adapted these concepts to shape the cultural and artistic perception of beauty to convey religious
doctrine. However, it remains unquestionable that the seminal ideas, especially the notion that
outer physical attributes mirror inner characteristics, originated in Ancient Greece.
Figures
Figure 1: Health Man. MS fr. 135, p. (detail), Livre des propriétés des choses. Western France,
second quarter of the 15th century CE
(Strickland 39)
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Figure 2: cloister capital, Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa. Southwestern France, early 12th century CE
Figure 3: cloister capital, Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa. Southwestern France, early 12th century CE
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Figure 4: cloister capital, Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa. Southwestern France, early 12th century CE
(Dale 414-15)
Figure 5: Archer from west pediment of Aphaia Temple. Aegina, Greece, c. 500-480BCE. Reproduction from Munich, 2004CE.
The figure shows a modern recreation of what a Persian figure would have looked like when the temple was first erected; the colors are based on traces of pigment remaining on the
sculpture. (Pedley 159)
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Figure 6: Praxiteles’ Apollo Sauroktonos. Louvre, Paris, France, 2nd century CE Roman copy of
early 4th century BCE Greek original
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Figure 7: Outside Tympanum. Abbey of Ste. Foy at Conques, France. c. 1130CE.
(Dale 420)
Works Cited
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Intellect and Imagination in Medieval Philosophy. Ed. Maria Cándida Pacheco and José
Francisco Meirinhos. E.U.: Brepolis, 2006. 413-435.
Bonfante, Larissa. “Nudity as a Costume in Classical Art.” American Journal of Archaeology. 93.4
(1989): 543-570. Accessed April 9, 2011. http://www.jstor.org.
Bruckner, Matilda Tomaryn. “Fierce Lions, Clever Foxes, Diabolical Dragons: Animals Tell Tales
in Medieval Arts and Letters.” Secular/Sacred: 11th-16th Century Works from the Boston
Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Ed. Nancy Netzer. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2006. 19-42.
Dale, Thomas E. A. “Monsters, Corporeal Deformities, and Phantasms in the Cloister of St-
Michel-de-Cuxa.” The Art Bulletin. 83.3 (2001): 402-436. Accessed April 9, 2011.
http://www.jstor.org.
Friedman, John. The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought. New York: Syracuse
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Hassig, Debra. “Beauty in the Beasts: A Study of Medieval Aesthetics.” RES: Anthropology and
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