Dragon - San Pedro de Arlanza (MET)

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After 1200, a room above the chapter house of the Monastery of San Pedro de Arlanza, near Hortigüela, Burgos, Spain - sold to the government in the nineteenth century - yielded this treasure. The Cloisters Collection acquired it in 1931 and now proudly displays it at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Tail coiled, claws extended, and feet braced, this magnificent dragon stands as a formidable counterpart to the lion opposite. In medieval times, beasts whether real or imaginary were often imbued with symbolic meaning, just like they are today in animal fables. While it's not always possible to figure out their specific intention in a particular monument, such beasts could be there simply for "aesthetic delight," as one thirteenth-century archbishop once noted. The monastery from which this fresco originated was abandoned in 1841.