Creatures, Creatures Everywhere

I got to spend a lovely weekend in New York City a little while ago, including a great trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Pro tip: when you are overwhelmed and exhausted by culture, a visit to the East Asian wing is quite soothing.)

I found these delightful legendary creatures who would have been quite at home in the menagerie from The Griffin’s Boy–it was like finding old friends peering from plinths and creeping about in carved stone archways.

(The image in the middle is officially a “chimera” which is museum-speak for “we don’t know what the heck this is supposed to be.” I believe that’s a lion’s head with wings along the back–perhaps an entirely new type of legendary beast?)