Art Price Index: Hybrids—Half-Man, Half-Beast

Published on 01 June 2023, by Sophie Reyssat

At the crossroads of species, these creatures illustrate humankind’s hunger for the marvelous.

€384,000René Lalique (1860-1945), Medusa, pendant with Medusa head in blue-green... Art Price Index: Hybrids—Half-Man, Half-Beast

€384,000
René Lalique (1860-1945), Medusa, pendant with Medusa head in blue-green pâte de cristal, gold with silver jeweler’s foil featuring three snakes and a suspended baroque pearl, h. 11 cm/4.3 in., weight: 78 g/2.75 oz.
Paris, Hôtel Drouot, November 17, 2021. Tessier & Sarrou et Associés auction house. PBG Expertise.

Whether harpy, mermaid, Medusa or gorgon, women are given the bodies of vultures or fish, and hair in the form of snakes. Men take on a bull’s head, a horse’s body or the horns and feet of a goat to become a Minotaur, centaur, faun or satyr. Certain creatures can be masculine or feminine, like male or female sphinxes with lion’s bodies. Combining animal…

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