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Place du bestiaire dans le corpus de graffitis gravés aux murs des églises du Bassin Parisien aux XVIe-XVIIIe siècles

Christian MONTENAT & Marie-Laure GUIHO-MONTENAT

fr Anthropozoologica 41 (2) - Pages 171-187

Published on 31 December 2006

This article is a part of the thematic issue Painted and engraved animals: from the form to the sign. Animals in post-Palaeolithic graphic art in the western Mediterranean

The role of animals in the corpus of engraved graffiti on church walls in the Parisian basin (16th-18th cent.)

Animals are only modestly represented in the rich corpus of graffiti engraved on church walls in numerous areas of the Parisian basin. Three animal representations are presented here: the cock, the horse and the deer, which are very different in their symbolic value. Popular beliefs and religious iconography are called upon in the attempt to understand the meaning of these animal figures.


Keywords:

Animal figures, graffiti, Parisian basin, cock, horse, horseshoe, deer, popular devotion, Counter-Reformation.

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