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Artwork Details
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Title:Crouching Lion
Date:ca. 5th–3rd century BCE
Culture:Early or middle Roman Republican, probably Etruria
Medium:Bronze
Dimensions:H: 6.3 cm (tallest point) L: 14.3 cm (nose to tip of tail stub) W: 3.5 cm (widest point)
Classification:Metalwork-Bronze
Credit Line:Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Object Number:1975.1.1443
The motif of the crouching lion, of which the Lehman piece is a stylistically singular and thus important representative, is fairly common in art of the ancient Mediterranean.2 In its original setting, the work may have had a talismanic, religious, or strictly decorative function and undoubtedly would have underscored prowess and prestige in its owners.3 Although bronzes are difficult to date, the lion was cast in one piece by the direct, lost-wax method, a technique introduced about the mid-sixth century b.c., providing an appropriate terminus post quem. Several technical elements suggest a date relatively early in Greco-Roman bronze production: the body is hollow, whereas the paws and tail are solid; there is no evidence of additional tooling on the lion after casting; and no trace of gilding or evidence of inlay for the eyes survives. The shape and form of the Lehman lion are more realistically executed than the deep-chested, highly stylized, and physiognomically powerful bronze beasts in Archaic Greek and Etruscan art, such as the famous bronze Etruscan chimaera in the Museo Archeologico, Florence. However, the Lehman lion is far less naturalistically rendered than pieces of the later Hellenistic period and early Roman Empire, such as one in the Seattle Art Museum. Close parallels for the Lehman lion are unknown, and it remains relatively singular in the corpus of Greco- Roman bronzes. However, its basic iconographic motifs — the crouching pose, open jaws, and elaborately curled tail — are all attested in earlier Etruscan-period (Archaic) objects, suggesting an Italian provenance, most likely from the vicinity of Etruria. Comparison with a more naturalistically rendered small-scale bronze lion in The Metropolitan Museum of Art of roughly the same date (fifth – fourth century b.c.), but of Greek manufacture, also supports the idea of a central Italian (more "provincial") origin, rather than a Greek one, for the Lehman lion.4 The present piece also falls short of the anatomic subtlety of works produced in contemporary Classical Greece, for example, the (albeit monumental) Piraeus lions of the late fourth century b.c. associated with the tomb of Demetrius of Phaleron. In summary, the Lehman lion lies in between the Archaic and Hellenistic in style and is Italic, not Greek, in manufacture. The small size indicates that the piece was a grave good, votive offering, or — most likely — an ornamental furniture attachment. An irregular, square hole pierces the underbelly, indicating either an ancient or postantique mount for affixing the lion to a larger object. Indeed, the work probably came from a tomb in the geographical region of Etruria, where a comparable artifact (especially similar in the stylized articulation of the mane), the famous Lupa di Fiesole, is displayed in the Museo Civico Archeologico.5
Catalogue entry from: Katherine E. Welch. The Robert Lehman Collection. Decorative Arts, Vol. XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012.
2. See, for example, Metropolitan Museum, 1972.118.84.
3. See further examples in W. L. Brown. The Etruscan Lion, Oxford, 1960; Jocelyn M.C. Toynbee, Animals in Roman Life and Art, Aspects of Greek and Roman Life. London, 1973; Maurizio Harari, Il "Gruppo Clusium" della ceramograpfia etrusca. Bibliotheca archaeologica (Rome) 1, Rome, 1980; Arielle P. Kozloff, ed. Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg Collection. Exhibition, Cleveland Museum of Art, 21 October – 29 November 1981,Cleveland; Small Bronze Sculpture from the Ancient World. Papers delivered at a symposium organized by the Department of Antiquities and the Department of Antiquities Conservation, J. Paul Getty Museum, and held at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 16 – 19 March 1989. Malibu, 1990.
4. See Metropolitan Museum, 1972.118.84.
5. Museo Civico Archeologico, Fiesole, 547.
[Dikrane Kelekian]. Acquired by Philip Lehman through Kelekian in October 1913.
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The Robert Lehman Collection is one of the most distinguished privately assembled art collections in the United States. Robert Lehman's bequest to The Met is a remarkable example of twentieth-century American collecting.
