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.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Marble statue of a lion
Period:Classical
Date:ca. 400–390 BCE
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
Said to have been found in Trastevere, near Porta Portese, Rome
[Until 1909, with Ettore Jandolo, Rome]; acquired in 1909, purchased from E. Jandolo.
Marshall, John. 1910. "Department of Classical Art: The Accessions of 1909. IV. Sculptures in Marble." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 5(9): pp. 210, 212–13.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 216–17, figs. 131-32, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 254–55, figs. 178-79, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 254–55, figs. 178-79, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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. pp. 111, 459–60, fig. 344-45, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 139, 276, pls. 116c–d, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1954. Catalogue of Greek Sculptures. no. 72, p. 46, pls. 48–49, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1970. "The Department of Greek and Roman Art: Triumphs and Tribulations." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 3: pp. 75, 77, fig. 6.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 144, pp. 131, 433, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lazzarini, Lorenzo and Dr. Clemente Marconi. 2014. "A New Analysis of Major Greek Sculptures in the Metropolitan Museum: Petrological and Stylistic." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 49: pp. 122, 130, 138–39, fig. 14, Appendix.
Zanker, Paul, Seán Hemingway, Christopher S. Lightfoot, and Joan R. Mertens. 2019. Roman Art : A Guide through the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Collection. pp. 32, 317, fig. 25, New York: Scala Publishers.
Hemingway, Seán. 2021. How to Read Greek Sculpture. no. 23, pp. 34, 45, 107–109, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Zanker, Paul. 2022. Afterlives : Ancient Greek Funerary Monuments in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 10, pp. 58–59, New York: Scala Publishers.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
