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A lion standing on partial platforms.

A lion which stretches forward so that its back legs are lengthened and its front legs are bent and kept close to its head, almost invisible. Its tail curls into a circle, and its back feet stand on a shape which is connected to the backs the paws, suggesting the surface that the lion should be standing on which is currently missing. Its front paws rest on a wide platform like a step, and are brought together under the lions chin and open mouth. The step is held up on a perpendicular shape which is triangular with scalloped edges.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2004.23
Title
Patera (shallow bowl) Handle in the Form of a Lion
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
handle
Date
late 6th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Lakonia
Period
Archaic period
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/52807

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3400, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Ancient Greece in Black and Orange
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
Greatest extension: 22.3 cm (8 3/4 in.)
Volutes: 6.7 cm (2 5/8 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Artax 1
Alloy: Leaded Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin, lead
Other Elements: iron
K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is an even green with small areas of underlying red exposed. There are no losses from this component of the original object. The surface is well preserved.

The handle is mostly solid; only the head and front portion of the lion are hollow. Red core material fills this cavity and is visible at a large opening where the handle meets the rim of the vessel. It is likely that an indirect lost-wax process was used to cast the wax model and that the details in the face and all of the incised lines were worked directly in the wax. A ridge at the sides of the lines indicates work with a point in wax. The long, wire-like tail was probably formed directly in wax and added to the cast wax model of the body. Fine file marks on many areas of the surface are the only likely cold work.


Henry Lie (submitted 2005)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Dr. Leo Mildenberg, Zurich, Switzerland, (by 1999-2001), bequest; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2004.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Dr. Leo Mildenberg
Accession Year
2004
Object Number
2004.23
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
This handle for a patera, a shallow cup-shaped vessel, is in the form of an outstretched leaping lion. The handle consists of larger palmetted-shaped end which the lion rests its forepaws, and the smaller, heart-shaped end provides a base for the lion's hindlegs. The hindlegs are formed as a single element, probably for stability. The head is carefully modelled, with a rippled snout, lips, eyebrows, ears, and mane.

Publication History

  • Patricia Erhart Mottahedeh, ed., Out of Noah's Ark: Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg Collection, Verlag Philipp von Zabern (Mainz, 1997), p. 110, no. 87, fig. 87; p. 180, fig. 87.
  • [Reproduction Only], Persephone, (Fall 2004)., p. 9.
  • Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums Annual Report 2003-2004 (Cambridge, MA, 2005), p. 23.
  • Chiara Tarditi, Bronze Vessels from the Acropolis: Style and Decoration in Athenian Production between the Sixth and Fifth Centuries BC, Edizioni Quasar (Roma, 2016), p. 291, fig. 75

Exhibition History

  • Ancient to Modern, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/31/2012 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 3400 Greek, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project
  • Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu