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MEANING ENCODED IN A PIECE OF ARCHITECTURE

THE CASE OF THE TORONTO PUBLIC LIBRARYS ENTRANCE PORTAL


Nicholas Martino nicholas.martino@hotmail.com This claim paper aims to make a description of the meaning encoded in the entrance portal of Lillian H. Smith Public Library (figure 1), located at 239 College Street, Toronto by visual and meaning comparison with others figures related to the portal. Figure 1: The portal of Lillian H. Smith Public 1 Library.

The portal is composed by an arc about 4.5 m height, 2 m length and 5 m width. The name Toronto Public Library follows the shape of the arc identifying the building. In the front part of the arc, each side is composed by an animal turned to each other like theyre guarding something and watching everybody that comes inside of the library. Both winged animals are quite similar. The one on the right is clearly a griffin, a mythological animal composed by the head of an eagle, wings and the body of a lion. The feathers under the head of the griffin are very similar to the mane of the lion in front of you. The tail of the griffin is folded for inside of its lap like it is holding something that seems to look like an owl. Both sculptures are made of black stone. The one on the left is another mythical being called winged lion. The figure it is very similar to the griffin, basically a lion, also with its chest inflated and the tail folded to its lap, there is no owl on this side.
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Source: <ilovetoronto.com/images/2011/02/Lillian-H-Smith-Library.jpg> 1

According Rudenko (1958), both images - the griffin and the winged lion - are common to appear on artifacts that remounts to the art production of ancient cultures (second and third quarters of the first millennium B.C.). Those cultures were mostly horsebreeding Eurasian tribes passing by Grecian, Assyro-Persian and Chinese cultures. *...] Generally speaking the motive of the gryphon was borrowed by the horsebreeding tribes from Assyria and Babylon, though some features characteristic of the gryphons reviewed by us, are peculiar to Persia. Winged lions with long sharp ears and the legs and the tail of an eagle were familiar to Babylon. In Assyria the head of a lion was sometimes replaced by that of an eagle having a crest. In Persia both varieties were used *...+ (RUDENKO, 1958:117) As this paper aims to make a reading of the meaning encoded in the portal spoken here, Ill try to relate those figures with others through the history comparing its physical appearance and extracting from each one of them, its encoded meaning. I hope with that, to reveal the meaning encoded on the two sculpt ures of the Torontos Public Library main entrance. The griffin presents itself in a lot of different ways of representations (sculpture, architecture, painting, heraldic symbols, tapestry, etc.); also different meanings are hidden in each one of this signs. According Wikipedia, as lion represented the king of the beasts and the eagle the king of the birds, the griffin represents a powerful mythological king of the creatures. One of the first appearances of the griffin (maybe the very first one, according to Wikipedia) is a fresco painting (figure 2) founded in the throne room of the palace of Knossos probably from the 15th century B.C. Studies has quite different views about the function of the throne room. The most accepted view is that the room was used for religious ceremonies involving the high priestess. One fact is that there are two griffins turned into the main throne; this was interpreted by the scholars as a symbol of the king as beyond mortal realms. Probably because it is a two dimensional symbolic fresco, the aesthetics from the griffin are not so much looked like the griffin from the Public Library, although the anatomic of the animal it is pretty similar, except for something that looks like a crest on its head. Figure 2: Fresco in throne room in the 2 Palace of Knossos.

Source: <upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Knossos_07.JPG> 2

In central Asia the griffin (figure 3) appears related to the Achaemenid Persian Empire (550 - 330 B.C.) whose considered the animal as a protector from evil, witchcraft and secret slander" (NEVA, 1959). The image represents the being in a much more minimalist way than the library one. The material looks like the same, but the focus of the artist on the details is opposites. While the library one aims to make a realistic version, the Persian worries more about symmetry and geometrical shapes. Figure 3: The griffin from Achaemenid 3 Persian Empire (NDRP).

Today, the griffin is used in many heraldics, emblems and mascots of different institutions, for example, the symbol of Philadelphia Museum of Art constructed in 1876 (Picture 4). According Wikipedia, there is a griffin on each corner of the museums roof to protect its collection. Although the realistic representation and made of the same material, the anatomic of this griffin is pretty different from the object of study here. Figure 4: The roof of Philadelphia Museum of 4 Art.

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Source: <upload.wikimedia.org/*+/Persepolis_24.11.2009_11-18-.jpg> Source: <farm4.static.flickr.com/3527/3910074926_e2db0ce659.jpg> 3

The first appear of the winged lion is written on the Hebrew bible inside of the book of Daniel. Most specifically on the seventh chapter, Daniel receives a vision of four beasts coming out of the sea (figure 5): the winged lion, a bear, a four heads and four wings leopard and the fourth terrifying beast with a large iron teeth and ten horns. Some Christians theologists links the winged lion vision with the Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian. The king of Babylon is compared to a lion and the wings are about how fast the emperor expands his realm. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man and a man's heart was given to it. (Daniel 7:4) Figure 5: The four 5 beasts of Daniel.

Another appear of the winged lion is related to the author of the Gospel of Mark, Mark the Evangelist. The winged lion holding a book (figure 6) written Pax tibi, Marce, Evangelista meus (Peace be upon you, Mark, my Evangelist) is his symbol. According Wikipedia, the symbolism behind St. Mark's lion can be related to the power of St. Marks word and the book represents concepts of wisdom and peace, the wings symbolizes the spiritual elevation and the halo the Christian holiness. Although the winged lion representations are anatomically similar, probably because of the simplism on its description - a lion with wings, in this case, the images representing St Marks lion usually are much more dynamic than the library lion.

Source: < upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Daniel_4_Beasts.JPG> 4

Figure 6: The winged lion as a symbol of Mark 6 the Evangelist.

Even with different meanings about the griffin and the winged lion, we can clearly take a common or a dialectical meaning about them. From the king beyond the mortal realms in the Greek culture, passing through the protection from the evil in Persian ancient cultures to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the nineteenth century, the representation of the griffin is symbolized as a powerful animal able to protect and guard some kind of precious treasure. The winged lion from Daniel represents the power of Babylonian empire and the St Marks lion the wisdom and the peace. Those opposite interpretations can mess us searching for a meaning on the library one, although is obvious believe that the lion in the entrance of a library can be a guardian of the wisdom.

R EFERENCES
NEVA, Elena. Central Asian Jewelry and their Symbols in Ancient Time . Kunstpedia; citing Pugachenkova, G. 1959:70- 83 RUDENKO, S. J. The Mythological Eagle, the Gryphon, the Winged Lion, and the Wolf in the Art of Northern Nomads. In.:______. Artibus Asiae, 1958 WIKIPEDIA. Griffin. Available in: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin>. Access: Feb/22/2013 WIKIPEDIA. Lion of St. Mark. Available in: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_of_Saint_Mark>. Access: Feb/24/2013

Source: <upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons> 5

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