Two-tailed siren, crowned, stove tile, 15th century. From Buda Castle, Hungary. Photo by Bobo Boom, Flickr.
I'm extremely excited to see this siren, for a couple of reasons. While she may not be the finest example of a two-tailed siren on a stove tile, she confirms a suspicious I've had: that there's a number of two-tailed sirens in central European Renaissance art. I've found many examples in Italy especially, I haven't had as much luck with places like Poland and Czechia.
She helped me a find an article in Hungarian about the motif, which is pointing the way to other two-tailed sirens in Hungarian art— and this tile is what inspired author Zsuzsa Pekár to research her. I also decided to do some poking around about sirens on stove tiles, and discovered an excellent book chapter that analyses the symbolism of 77 (!) siren stove tiles in central European art.
But I downloaded too much stuff to process today, so tonight, let's just admire this siren. She's crowned, which could connect her to heraldry, and she has a dress, which is unusual for sirens— I love the detail of the buttons on her top.
Here's the article in Hungarian about two-tailed sirens:
Pekár, Zsuzsa, 1996. A román kori sellő megjelenése a középkori heraldikában és ikonográ- fiában. [The appearance of the Romanesque mermaid in medieval heraldry and iconography]. Turul, 69 (3–4), 78–102.
Here's a post about a Hungarian church with a two-tailed siren.
