Medieval sirens and mermaids

[davidjackson]

It's difficult to say because in my opinion, if we really take the image as it is, it's not a mermaid but rather a person standing in a fish mouth. The most common parallel in European art would be Jonah emerging from the whale.

There is a beautiful 1th century carving of Satan emerging from a snake's mouth to tempt Eve in the garden that is a close parallel for this exampler.

   
It was on the doors of Notre Dame in Paris.

This was bought to my attention by Prof Nancy Mandeville Caciola in Serpent and Lies, Speculum 93/1. She outlines several other examples from the period and time that were sculptures in common view. All are much the same : a woman emerges from a serpent in order to tempt.