Several statues of this type, made from nenfro, a kind of volcanic stone used extensively at Vulci, depict winged lions and sphinxes. These were set up to protect the entrances to subterranean chamber tombs covered by a tumulus (earthen mound). They often appear in pairs and represent the Etruscan response to a long tradition of guardian figures stretching back to ancient Egypt and the Near East.
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Title:Nenfro statue of a winged lion
Period:Archaic
Date:ca. 550 BCE
Culture:Etruscan
Medium:Nenfro
Dimensions:H. 37 1/2 in. (95.3 cm); length 28 3/4 in. (73 cm); width at haunches 13 3/4 in. (35 cm)
Classification:Stone Sculpture
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1960
Accession Number:60.11.1
[Until 1960, with Robert E. Hecht, Jr.]; acquired in 1960, purchased from Robert E. Hecht, Jr.
1960. "Additions to the Collections." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 19(2): p. 45.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1961. "Etruscan, Greek, and Roman: Sculptures in the Recent Accessions Room." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 19(6): pp. 181–82, fig. 4.
Hus, Alain. 1961. Recherches sur La Statuaire en Pierre Étrusque Archaïque. p. 567, Paris: E. de Boccard.
Hus, Alain. 1962. "Trois sculptures archaïque en pierre de Vulci et sa region." Hommages à Albert Grenier. Collection Latomus 58., : pp. 833–5, pl. 172.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1964. Guide to the Collections: Greek and Roman Art. pp. 34–5, fig. 45, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richardson, Emeline. 1964. The Etruscans, their Art, and Civilization. p. 126, fig. 6, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Del Chiaro, Mario Aldo. 1977. "Archaic Etruscan Stone Sculpture." J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, 5: p. 47, fig. 6.
Del Chiaro, Mario Aldo. 1982. "An Etruscan Stone Winged Lion." J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, 10: p. 123, fig. 6.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 320, pp. 276, 469, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
de Puma, Richard Daniel. 2013. Etruscan Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 4.22, pp. 11, 64–66, 126, New Haven and London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Campbell, Virginia L. 2017. Ancient Rome. pp. 58–59, New York: Thames and Hudson.
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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.
