Origin of Symmetrical Composition in Decorative Art of the Viking Age

Abstract

For the first time, a symmetrical composition with figures of a deity standing on the godsof carnivorous animals appeared in the Middle Eastern art of the III–II millennium B.C. In the Mycenaean era, this composition became known to adherents of Hellenic art, who realized it both in painting and sculpture. This composition realizes the idea of their authors striving to convey to recipients the concept of the power of the depicted deity and his power over the animal world. A symmetrical composition with standing predatory animals, which is a clear oriental innovation in the art of ancient Europe, was not represented on our continent in ancient and Hellenistic times. As a result of the gradual increase in the eastern influence on the art of late Rome, symmetry again became known to Europeans in the products of provincial-Roman masters of the 5th century A.D. In late antiquity, goldsmiths in the Roman provinces used this composition on the parts of military belt sets. These images became models for the ancient German masters who represented the God Wotan / Odin surrounded by mythical animals and birds dedicated to him. The decorative art of the Viking Age, alien to symmetry, retains it only in the plot of the pagan canon «Odin and the Crows». Variants of this «pagan icon», realized in the decorative art of the Viking Age, came to an end in the Germanic world of a composition with symmetrically located predators, which began in the Ancient East in Akkadian time. In this case, we have a unique example of the multi-thousand-year existence of the pictorial motive, used by jewelers and stonecutters to make impressive images of mystical creatures. The predators surrounding them were intended to symbolize the unearthly power of the deities.In Byzantium, a symmetrical composition remained relevant until the XIV century. Modern and contemporary historypreserves paired images of predators in heraldic and architectural compositions. However, their genetic relationship with Ancient Eastern images requires additional study.