Cimetière du Père-Lachaise. Bats and vampires in French Romanticism

Abstract

In the literature, bats appeared already in the fables of Aesops more than five hundred years BC (Anon 2018) and, of course, they were also treated in Aristotle´s work De Animalibus (On animals) in the 3rd century BC. Bats were quite accurately described in 77 AD by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia (English translation 1967), ABSTRACTThe bats´ elusive life style and unusual appearance have always stimulated peoples´ imagination, perhaps more so than any other animal. Since medieval times the church has associated bats with the Devil as well as death, darkness and the underground, and, not surprisingly, bats have obtained a given place in folklore, art and fiction. In this paper, we present a remarkable display of bats in Cimetière du Père-Lachaise (the Père Lachaise cemetery) in Paris. The bats are symbolic and occur on vaults from the Romantic period (1820-1850), a passage of European history when bats were quite popular ingredients in artwork and literature, particularly in France. Most of the bat sculptures in Père Lachaise are quite realistic and apparently without any intent to invoke fear or send evil messages. They are typically displayed on the steel gates of the tombs and symbolise death and the long night before the flight to heaven. They often occur in association with an hourglass, a winged skull and/or an ouroboros, icons of the ephemeral nature of life and the eternal cycle of life and death, respectively. We speculate that the bat symbols could also have an apotropaic function, protecting the tomb and its inhabitants from evil forces and/or bad luck. The reputation of bats in Europe has not always been as negative as it is today, and those at Cimetière du Père-Lachaise illustrate its diversity and complexity. The tombs with bats in this cemetery are exclusive and exceptional items of human cultural history and we would strongly appreciate if they would be preserved for future studies and enlightenment.

Bane or Blessing? Reviewing Cultural Values of Bats across the Asia-Pacific Region

“…Additionally, bats are associated with vampires in Western culture (e.g., Prokop et al 2009; Rydell et al 2018)—folklore with roots in a Russian myth of a reanimated corpse that feeds on human blood, dating back to the eleventh century (Cooper 2005). The association may have come about due to vampire hysteria in Europe influencing the observations of early naturalists encountering tropical bat species.…”

Ethnobiology of Bats: Exploring Human-Bat Inter-Relationships in a Rapidly Changing World

“…Yet, beyond regulatory services (e.g., arthropod suppression, pollination, and seed dispersal), bats were and, in many cases, are still of great value to ancient and contemporary cultures and religions around the world. This cultural and spiritual relevance is reflected in the presence of bat symbols in numerous temples and artifacts, such as Egyptian tombs from 2000 BC (Kunz et al 2011), in Mesoamerican sacrificial sculptures (Kampen 1978), European churches from the Middle Ages (Eklöf and Rydell 2021) and cemeteries (Rydell et al 2018), Prehispanic Mayan iconography (Retana-Guiascón and Navarijo-Ornelas 2012; Thompson 1996), as well as Chinese motifs, particularly from the Middle-to-Late Qing Dynasty (Figure 1). Bat symbols have also been found in pre-historical sites of the Lucayan–Taíno mythology, and mortuary practices in the Bahamas (Schaffer et al 2012).…”

“…Although bats contribute to human well-being in myriad ways, they are often disliked and feared (Polák et al 2020; Todd 2016; but see e.g., Deshpande and Kelkar 2015; Fagan et al 2018; Lim and Wilson 2019; Shapiro et al 2021). Underlying these negative sentiments are relatively widespread associations between bats and death (Fernández-Llamazares et al 2018; Kingston 2016), witchcraft (Lunney and Moon 2011; Musila et al 2018; Tuttle 2018), vampires (Prokop and Tunnicliffe 2008; Prokop et al 2009; Rydell et al 2018), malevolent spirits (Tanalgo 2017; Tanalgo et al 2016; Tatai 2006), and evil (Allen 1939; Charro 1999; Frembgen 2006). Across much of Europe, disdain and fear of bats is largely embroiled in the Church doctrine, where bats are often used to symbolize the Devil (Eklöf and Rydell 2021).…”