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This issue of Engramma is divided into two sections: the first one focuses on the representation of the angel between anthropomorphism and zoomorphism; the second one retraces some significant scenarios in the symbolic history of the winged bestiary, with a special focus on the figures of the eagle and the falcon. The two articles by Delphine Lauritzen, Comment le Quatrième Vivant (re)devient-il un ange ? Plasticité symbolique de l’anthropomorphisme sur les mosaïques de Ravenne, and Massimo Stella, Fabula angelica, l’ombelico del sacro tra Balzac e Apuleio, which open the issue, are in close dialogue with each other, focusing precisely on the hybrid nature of angelic being, between anthropomorphism and animalisation. Filippo Perfetti in Putti e fiamme aggettivi dell’angelo, nell’arte fiorentina del Quattrocento, seeks the ‘form’ of the angel between Ficinian hermeticism, Donatello’s “spiritelli” and the ornamental motifs of the Botticelli school. Monica Centanni and Paolo Cipolla in ΟΥΑΙ ΟΥΑΙ, il secondo grido dell’aquila. Angeli apocalittici e demoni sconfitti nella iscrizione greca (integrata) della Natività mistica di Botticelli study Sandro Botticelli’s Mystical Nativity, and integrate the lacuna in the Greek inscription on the upper margin of the painting: the result is an apocalyptic re-interpretation of the scene which proceeds from the cry of the eagle in The Book of Revelation XII “ΟΥΑΙ ΟΥΑΙ”. The two articles by Tommaso Scarponi, Dove tu passi è Samarcanda. Sull’Angelo come purificazione dello spazio, and Giorgiomaria Cornelio, Sul parlare angelico. Un’antologia da Fabula mistica di Michel De Certeau, focus on the two complementary and interdependent features, namely the ‘imaginal’ (Scarponi) and the linguistic (Cornelio) ones, to which the ‘angelic question’ from a meta-noetic perspective is shaped. Concetta Cataldo, in her article Aquile e tartarughe, dall’aneddoto sulla morte di Eschilo agli Adagia di Erasmo, unravels one of the most bizarre mysteries of Antiquity – the death of Aeschylus in which both an eagle and a tortoise are involved – combining ethological notions with classical and erudite sources. The article by Yannis Hadjinicolaou Immagini in volo. Nachleben iconica della falconeria focuses on the art of falconry: the iconography of the king with the falcon resting on his arm is interpreted through the Warburgian lens of Pathosformel. Asia Benedetti, Angeli, ali e pennuti dal Theatrum mundi di Vettor Pisani, describes and reinterprets the mysterious and fascinating creatures of Vettor Pisani’s winged bestiary, while Ilaria Grippa in her Icaro, l’ascesa, la caduta. The Suffering of Light di Alex Webb recalls the mythic and tragic background which underlies a famous shot by the renowned photographer. The essay by Anna Ghiraldini and Chiara Velicogna Ali di Massimo Scolari. A proposito di Aliante 1991, transports us to another dimension: Massimo Scolari’s sculpture, now placed near the headquarters of the Iuav University of Architecture in Venice, is the fruit of "symbolic design as well as figuration of knowledge capable of going beyond visibility - playing with weight, balance and wind". Three reviews close the issue: Filippo Perfetti, Angeli e altri pennuti. Una lettura della mostra Recycling Beauty (Fondazione Prada, Milano novembre 2022/febbraio 2023), analyses the famous Thrones of Gods reconstructed in the exhibition curated by Salvatore Settis. Maria Bergamo reviews the novel-essay by Patricia Fortini Brown, The Venetian Bride. Bloodlines and Blood Feuds in Venice and its Empire. Finally, Patricia Fortini Brown presents the book Alessandro, il cavaliere, il doge. Le placchette profane della Pala d’Oro di San Marco by Maria Bergamo, in which the image of the Mystic Falconer emerges in the representation of imperial power transferred from Byzantium to Venice.

In the jewel-encrusted Pala d’Oro in Venice’s Basilica di San Marco, among its golden radiance and precious Byzantine enamels, there are six little plaquettes, only 4.4 cm in diameter: three knightly falconers on horseback, an apotheosis of Alexander the Great, a bust of the Emperor Constantine, and a symbol of the Cosmos (or cosmic vision, also identified as a Tree of Life). With little obvious coherence, the grouping has often gone unmentioned in the literature. Bergamo shows how the ensemble was an integral part of the Pala, made first by Doge Ordelaffo Falier, and reassembled in the fourteenth century by Doge Andrea Dandolo. Indeed, they form an elegant summa of Andrea Dandolo’s vision of the Venetian republic as the rightful – and inevitable – heir of the Roman empire.

In the present article the idea of ‘flying images’ concerning more specific images of falconry will be addressed in both a metaphorical and a literal manner. It will be shown how falconry’s iconic afterlife was crafted in the longue durée through specific strategies, which are not without con­tradictions. This afterlife will be described in a nonlinear way from Frederick II up to Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan through Aby Warburg’s concept of the ‘image vehicle’. Falconry images are ‘image vehicles’ par excellence. Falconry furniture, such as the hood or lure, has deep iconic impact. Such items are ‘image vehicles’ in the Warburgian sense, transmitting falconry’s physical and meta­phorical values over time and across cultures. The article will show how such images directly link to falconry techniques, thereby revealing falconry’s iconic power both as a practical pursuit and one laden with symbolism.