Recently the Museum's Department of Egyptian Art had the rare opportunity to acquire a pink granite statue of monumental proportions: a recumbent lion (Figure 1) excavated by Edouard Naville in 1891 at Herakleopolis Magna, some seventy miles south of Cairo. The work was carried out under the auspices of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, and in recognition of its financial support of the Fund's undertakings, the lion came into the collection of the McLean Museum and Art Gallery in Greenock, Scotland. Since the lion was found in the remains of a Ramesside temple, it was dated to that period and its muzzle and ears were restored on the basis of New Kingdom prototypes.

Displayed out-of-doors at various times over the last century, the lion, when first viewed by Dorothea Arnold and Marsha Hill of the Museum's Department of Egyptian Art, was covered with a thick, green layer of biological growth and dark patches of dirt and soot. In spite of this, the curators recognized in the powerful figure a quality previously overlooked by earlier generations of Egyptologists: a sense of suspended vitality, seen particularly in the spare indications of its musculature, considered to be more typical of Old Kingdom statuary. Features such as the halo-like face mane and the high position of the tail supported this new attribution.

The lion was brought to the Sherman Fairchild Center for examination, and with the permission of its owner, was cleaned in its entirety before it was actually accessioned. This is an unusual measure, but an accurate evaluation of the stone's condition was essential. Granite is low in porosity and high in mechanical strength, and while generally resistant to deterioration, under certain conditions it can sustain damage in the form of granular disintegration and spalling. As the surface of the statue was cleaned, lichens were found growing beneath dislodged crystal grains, but the underlying cause of this deterioration was recognized as the saline desert environment in which the stone had been buried. Fortunately, the lion was found to be in stable condition and, in addition to subtle stylistic details that further confirmed the new dating, areas with original surface polish were revealed.

The cleaning was carried out by Ann Heywood, Associate Conservator, using distilled water and an anionic detergent (Figure 2). After the Museum acquired the lion, Heywood worked with the Egyptian Department and with Molding Studio Supervisor Ron Street to prepare it for display. The nineteenth century restorations of the muzzle and ears, fixed with iron rods and a friable, gray, fill material, were removed. Using several Old Kingdom prototypes, Street created a modern replacement for the muzzle, first preparing a model in a non-drying, oil-based clay and then casting it in plaster. A silicon rubber mold taken from the plaster model was used to cast a hollow shell of epoxy mixed with strands of fiberglass (Figure 3). The new muzzle is supported by a brass rod inserted into the channel drilled for the original iron mount, with a bulked adhesive to fill gaps around the outer edges of the join. The replacement of the ears awaits future discoveries that might provide suitable models. DS

The Recumbent Lion is featured in Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2001–2002, MMA Bulletin 60 (Fall, 2002) p. 6. This notable acquisition is currently guarding the Temple of Dendur, and with the opening of the newly reinstalled Egyptian Galleries in Fall 2003, it will be placed in front of the tomb of Perneb, another monumental work of the Old Kingdom.