University of Castilla-La Mancha

Graduate Student, History of Art

Ph. D. student

Thesis Title: Grifos y esfinges: resonancias de la Antigüedad en la iconografía del bestiario medieval cristiano

About

I am currently working in my Ph. D. dissertation, which is about the development of griffin and sphinx iconography, from its origins to the early Middle Age. Because of the new methodologies, it is necessary to research about the role of these iconographic motifs in their historical, artistic, geographic, religious, etc. contexts. But we cannot forget the importance of the international relations in the Bronze Age, when these images travelled throughout the land and the sea and changed its shapes, although part of its meaning survived.
That’s why my Ph. D dissertation is not only a study of the forms of these motifs, but also a study of the mechanisms which allowed to ancient people to create several images as an icon of its divinities, atmospheric phenomena, etc., and how these images arrived to other countries, where they were assimilated or adapted. The most important question for me is the meaning of this kind of motifs in funeral contexts and, of course, its relation with the afterlife.
Last year I studied the way it happened in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Near East, from 3300 to 1500 BC. However, my project has made progress, and I am working in the appearance and function of griffins and sphinx in Aegean contexts.