SDL Original | Collection
ID | SDL2025G2C1
Title | Albanian Eagle
Original stylizations of the double headed Albanian eagle, by Sam Diellor Luani
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The reason why my most emotional works in visual art are in red and black is the Albanian flag. This sub-gallery is a tribute to this flag and the Albanian Eagle.
The double-headed eagle is the shape I’ve drawn more than any other in my life. My earliest memories of sketching it are intertwined with trauma and defiance. In the land where I grew up, this symbol was forbidden. My father was imprisoned for expressing pride in it. Both his father and my mother’s father died fighting for and with this symbol. Ethnic cleansing was justified by the genocidal regime of the old land, under the pretext of suppressing this particular symbol.
To me, this double headed eagle was more than a national emblem—it was a sacred form. It shaped my visual thinking, my sense of symmetry, my understanding of balance and proportion. It taught me how to draw. It taught me what it means to resist. Every time I drew it, it was a quiet act of rebellion, a ritual of remembrance, and a declaration of identity and pride.
The double-headed eagle has ancient roots. It appears in Byzantine heraldry, Roman iconography, and various imperial flags. It is also a Serbian national symbol. But the Albanian version—especially the contemporary rectangular form—is different, and unique. Unlike the triangular or German-style eagles found in many logos, and unlike the classical Albanian eagle of the Albanian National Rebirth, the contemporary Albanian eagle has the structure of a mandala in a true Jungian sense. It is symmetrical, intricate, and psychologically potent. I can attest to its power as a meditative and transformative shape. It has shaped more than my personality, it has shaped my fate.
