Oriental Influences in the Animal Sculpture of Campania

Abstract

Since Bertaux1 various scholars have investigated the influence of the Orient on single monuments of medieval Campanian sculpture. We are indebted to Monneret de Villard2 for an excellent article on the reliefs of S. Aspreno in Naples, and to Maria Teresa Tozzi for her study of the decoration of the old Cathedral of Sorrento.3 It is still worth while, however, to isolate from the great wealth of Campanian sculpture certain individual motives, particularly animals, and to examine their origin. Only in this way will the course of their evolution, from their genesis in the East to their gradual assimilation by Italian art, become apparent.