Actually, we have two monsters here: a mermaid and an unorthodox griffin. This painting is by Paul Ranson (1864-1909), one of Les Nabis. Its title is always given as Hippogriffe. Not to quibble, but a hippogriff, strictly speaking, is the offspring of a griffin and a mare, and has the limbs of a horse. As you can see, this guy's back legs have the feline characteristics of a traditional griffin, while his front legs end in cloven hooves like a deer or goat. To further confuse matters, he has a man's face. There's no telling who his mama was.
The mermaid seems unperturbed about his pedigree as she basks in his virile aura, but I don't have high hopes for this budding romance. She'll never fly, and I doubt he can swim. This can't end well.
3 comments:
"There's no telling who his mama was." hahahahaha!
Ah, attraction to the one we know will never work out. But part of the magic is the tension of what could be, the imagination untainted by "I shaved my legs (or scraped my scales) for this?"
You have a romantic soul, Maurac--you shame my cynicism ;-)
Hey, Whodoo, it's good to see you here.
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