Following my recent blog post on Senmurv-like creatures in an iconostasis at the Ikonenmuseum Recklinghausen. I received an answer from the museum’s director, Dr. Lutz Rickelt.
In his opinion the depicted creatures are dragons, whose presence in an iconostasis may be interpreted as a symbol of evil that Christ’s victory has overcome. In some iconistases, dragons are shown beneath Christ’s victorious cross, or below the fangs of eagles.
Dragons play an important role in Christian Orthodox iconography as the embodiment of evil. An overview of the dragon in Western Christian iconography can be found here: www.rdklabor.de/wiki/Drache (Link by courtesy of Dr. Rickelt). At least in Western iconography, dragons are frequently depicted as winged serpents with two or four legs, and generally symbolise evil forces.
The fact remains that the creatures in the iconostasis don’t look much like serpents – apart from their tails, of course. The two feet, the bird’s body, the dog’s head all point to a senmurv. What made the Greek carvers choose this particular collection of features when they wanted to depict a dragon remains subject to speculation. It is certainly extraordinary.