The Lion of Venice is an ancient bronze sculpture of a
winged lion
The winged lion is a mythological creature that resembles a lion with bird-like wings.
Mythical adaptations
The winged lion is found in various forms especially in ancient and medieval civilizations.
There were different mythological adaptions f ...
in the
Piazza San Marco
Piazza San Marco (; vec, Piasa San Marco), often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as ''la Piazza'' ("the Square"). All other urban spaces in the city (exc ...
of
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, which came to symbolize the city – as well as one of its patron saints,
St Mark
Mark the Evangelist ( la, Marcus; grc-gre, Μᾶρκος, Mârkos; arc, ܡܪܩܘܣ, translit=Marqōs; Ge'ez: ማርቆስ; ), also known as Saint Mark, is the person who is traditionally ascribed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark. Accor ...
– after its arrival there in the 12th century. The sculpture surmounts one of
two large granite columns in the Square, thought to have been erected between 1172 and 1177 during the reign of Doge
Sebastiano Ziani
Sebastiano Ziani was Doge of Venice from 1172 to 1178. He was one of the greatest planners of Venice.
During his short term as Doge, Ziani divided the city-state into many districts. He realised that the government headquarters were too close ...
or about 1268, bearing ancient symbols of the two patron saints of Venice.
The ''Lion'' sculpture has had a very long and obscure history, probably starting its existence as a winged lion-griffin statue on a monument to the god
Sandon at
Tarsus in
Cilicia
Cilicia (); el, Κιλικία, ''Kilikía''; Middle Persian: ''klkyʾy'' (''Klikiyā''); Parthian: ''kylkyʾ'' (''Kilikiyā''); tr, Kilikya). is a geographical region in southern Anatolia in Turkey, extending inland from the northeastern coa ...
about 300 BC. The figure, which stands on the eastern column, at some point came to represent the
Lion of Saint Mark
The Lion of Saint Mark, representing Mark the Evangelist, pictured in the form of a winged lion, is an aspect of the Tetramorph. On the pinnacle of St Mark's Cathedral he is depicted as holding a Bible, and surmounting a golden lion which is t ...
, traditional symbol of
Saint Mark
Mark the Evangelist ( la, Marcus; grc-gre, Μᾶρκος, Mârkos; arc, ܡܪܩܘܣ, translit=Marqōs; Ge'ez: ማርቆስ; ), also known as Saint Mark, is the person who is traditionally ascribed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark. Accor ...
the
evangelist
Evangelist may refer to:
Religion
* Four Evangelists, the authors of the canonical Christian Gospels
* Evangelism, publicly preaching the Gospel with the intention of spreading the teachings of Jesus Christ
* Evangelist (Anglican Church), a c ...
. The figure standing on the western column is St.
Theodore of Amasea
: ''For another Saint Theodore, see: Theodore Stratelates or Saint Theodore (disambiguation)''.
Saint Theodore Tiron ( grc-gre, Ἅγιος Θεόδωρος Τήρων) is one of the two recognized saints called Theodore who are venerated as w ...
, patron of the city before St Mark, who holds a spear and stands on a crocodile (to represent the dragon which he was said to have slain). It is also made up of parts of antique statues and is a copy, the original being kept in the
Doge's Palace
The Doge's Palace ( it, Palazzo Ducale; vec, Pałaso Dogal) is a palace built in Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme auth ...
.
Description
The ''Lion'' weighs approximately 3,000 kilograms. The book under its front paws is a later addition.
History
Origin
The ''Lion'', in its present form, is a composite of different pieces of bronze created at very different times, building upon ancient "core" components. It has undergone extensive restoration and repair work at various times.
Scholarship over the last 200 years variously attributed the
provenance
Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...
of the most ancient parts of the statue to
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...
,
Sassania
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
,
Greco-Bactria
The Bactrian Kingdom, known to historians as the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom or simply Greco-Bactria, was a Hellenistic-era Greek state, and along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world in Central Asia and the India ...
,
medieval Venice, and various other times and places. Scientific and art historical studies in the 1980s, however, led to the conclusion that it was created between the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 3rd centuries BC somewhere in the
Hellenistic Greek
Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...
or
Oriental Greek world. The original bronze figure, taken as a whole, was likely significantly different from the ''Lion'' of today; and, predating Christianity, would not have originally had any association with Saint Mark.
Medieval
It is likely that the statue was assembled into something like its present form by or during the Medieval period. The earliest textual reference to the ''Lion'' is from 1293, when it is recorded as having been restored after long neglect.
Expatriation and repatriation
The ''Lion'' was taken to France after Napoleon's conquest of the Venetian Republic, during his 1797 campaign in Italy. It was damaged in the course of removal and transport; lacking wings, paws, tail, and Gospel-book. After being restored by French sculptors, possibly Edme Gaulle or Jean Guillaume Moitte, the ''Lion'' was mounted on a plinth in the new Fontaine des Invalides. The fountain, completed in 1804, was located at the Place des Invalides, Paris.
After Napoleon's downfall the ''Lion'' was returned to Venice, now a part of the Austrian Empire. On 2 October 1815, during the process of removal, it was again badly damaged. A rope broke, the statue fell, and smashed apart; whether by accident, or in an act of sabotage by one of the French workers is unclear. As a result, the bronze figure was broken into approximately 20 pieces. Having lost its main ornament, the Fontaine des Invalides was eventually redesigned, and finally demolished in 1840.
Repatriated to Venice, the fragments of the ''Lion'' were stored at the Arsenal before it was repaired by Bartolomeo Ferrari and returned to its column, officially, on 13 April 1816. This restoration included an alteration to the ''Lion's'' tail, now extended, which had previously been tucked between its hind legs. The book beneath its paws was again recast; the French replacement having been lost, stolen, or abandoned.
Scientific analysis
Iconography and Popular Culture
Ultimately, the image of the ''Lion'' appeared on the
flag of the Venetian Republic, and it is also well known as
Golden Lion
The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguishe ...
in the form of the prizes introduced in 1949 at the
Venice International Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...
.
American comedian
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (19 ...
used the Lion of Venice in a joke when doing a travel show in Italy with producer
Jordan Schlansky. In a lampoon of Italian Cinema, the statue is shown with a leg broken off and replaced with an arm from a Barbie doll, while the title card shows (in Italian) "Terribly Restored Statue Productions." The title card with the broken statue serves as introduction to "Due Buffoni" (Two Buffoons), a black and white mock-Italian movie showing Conan and Jordan's adventures in Italy while a depressed Italian narrator describes how awful the mock-film and its two subjects are.
See also
References
*''Includes material from the French Wikipedia article about the
Fontaine des Invalides.''
{{Piazza San Marco
4th-century BC Greek sculptures
3rd-century BC Greek sculptures
Sculptures of lions
Hellenistic and Roman bronzes
Monuments and memorials in Venice
Outdoor sculptures in Venice
Hellenistic sculpture
Ancient Greek sculptures
Bronze sculptures in Italy
Statues in Italy
Piazza San Marco
Ancient Greek metalwork