June saw the opening of the exhibition “Bestiary” by the painter Perico Pastor and scientist Xavier Bellés in the church of Sant Miquel in La Seu d’Urgell. “Bestiary” comprises 44 panels with images of some of the most representative animals of the Middle Ages as well as explanations of their symbolism.

The exhibition is another step in the collaboration between the artist and the scientist to develop a new collection of drawings of both real and imaginary animals of that epoch. Bellés, director of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE: CSIC-UPF) provides the scientific and historical knowledge, while Perico transforms this into descriptive and educational artworks.

Two viewpoints, the scientific and artistic, of the animal world as it was seen and understood by mediaeval man, involving a mixture of reality and imagination from which it was necessary to extract a symbolic and moral lesson –something which is still fascinating today.

This exhibition, organised by La Seu d’Urgell Town Hall and the Diocesan Museum, is part of the tenth edition of the mountain film festival in the Pyrenees, PICURT, held around the same dates in both Alt Urgell and Andorra.