This is the order from left to right of the animals that guard from above the entrance to the Pomposa Basilica. Exemplary elements of the Middle Ages and Romanesque art that form a sequence of meaning that is not purely decorative. It is a sort of composite message in which each figure manifests a value to be grasped not only individually, but in relation to the others, in a sort of expressive code. As the context and the era change, the same animals may become symbols of different, even contrasting, qualities. Taken individually, for example, the lion, the eagle and the peacock could evoke pride, but in Pomposa their role is linked to Christian symbolism, which charges them with positive values: the strength of the divine Word (powerful and just) and the humanity of Christ incarnate (the lion), the victory of light over the forces of evil and the Ascension of the Redeemer (the eagle), the incorruptibility of the body and the resurrection of the Saviour. The sequence of the three figures recalls and reaffirms the Christian dogma of the human and divine nature of Christ, who died and rose again, and celebrates the redemptive power of his message of salvation. All this in three symbols.