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Lion

after 1200
On view at The Met Cloisters in Gallery 01
Muscles tendus, regard intense et crinière hérissée, ce lion frémit d’une puissance explosive. Il faisait partie d’une paire qui, à l’origine, flanquait une porte à l’étage supérieur de la salle capitulaire (lieu de réunion des moines) de San Pedro de Arlanza. Exécutée au XIIIe siècle, la fresque avait été recouverte pendant des travaux de rénovation au XVIIIe siècle. Elle fut mise au jour après l’incendie de 1894, puis vendue à un particulier et, finalement, au Musée. La visite des Cloîtres permet aussi d’admirer une fresque avec dragon de même provenance.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Titre: Lion
  • Date: Après 1200
  • Aire géographique: Castille-León, salle capitulaire du monastère San Pedro de Arlanza, près de Burgos
  • Culture: Espagnol
  • Technique: Fresque transposée sur toile
  • Dimensions: 3,3 x 3,4 m
  • Crédits: The Cloisters Collection, 1931
  • Accession Number: 31.38.1a, b
  • Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters

Audio

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Cover Image for 11. Lion

11. Lion

Gallery 1

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NARRATOR #2/JANNIE WOLF: This early thirteenth-century fresco and the one on the other side of the doorway are superb examples of Romanesque wall painting. Originally, they adorned the walls of the chapter house of the monastery at San Pedro de Arlanza in northern Spain. There, the fresco on the left—a threatening lion with the face of an angry mustachioed man—faced a second lion on the other side of the entrance. The winged, horned, dragon on the right similarly faced off against a griffin. The border strip under the lion includes an aquatic motif, while the one under the dragon represents fanciful scenes of unknown origin: a pair of bird sirens or harpies argues between themselves; a lyre-playing donkey entertains a fox and a goat. The style of these frescoes is comparable to that of Spanish manuscript illuminations of the time. This style was also probably influenced by Islamic textiles. Much of Southern Spain was Islamic at this time, and much of Spanish Romanesque art shows the effects of the cross-fertilization of Christian and Islamic cultures. The room for which these frescoes were painted was about thirty-four feet square, with twelve-foot ceilings, and covered from floor to ceiling with frescoes. The monastery fell into ruin in the nineteenth century and these frescoes were removed from their original location in the early twentieth century.

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