Marble statue of a lion

Additional Images (2)

Period: Classical

Date: ca. 400–390 B.C.

Culture: Greek

Medium: Marble, Parian 2

Dimensions: H. 31 1/4 in. (79.4 cm) length 63 1/2 in. (161.3 cm)

Classification: Stone Sculpture

Credit Line: Purchase, Rogers Fund, and James Loeb and Anonymous Gifts, 1909

Accession Number: 09.221.3

On view in Gallery 156

Description Object Information Related Objects Online Resources Video Audio

Marble statues of lions were sometimes used as tomb monuments or as guardians at both ends of a large tomb facade. Like many classical Greek works of art, this statue was taken to Rome during the imperial period.

References

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 216-17, figs. 131-32.

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 254-55, figs. 178-79.

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 254-55, figs. 178-79.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1936[1934]. A Guide to the Collections, Part 1: Ancient and Oriental Art, 2nd edn. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1950. The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks, 3rd edn. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 111, 459-60, fig. 344-45.

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, pp. 139, 276, pls. 116c-d.

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1954. Catalogue of Greek Sculptures. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, no. 72, p. 46, pls. 48-49.

Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 144, pp. 131, 433.