Title

Lion from Monzón de Campos

Anonimous

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Inscriptions / Marks

ةلما / نملكعشرةبا
baraka kāmila /ni'ma šāmila
Perfect blessing / complete happiness

Object history

Found in Monzón de Campos in 1849

Mariano Fortuny y Marsal, 1872-1874

Eugène Piot, 1875

Louis Stern, 1890-1900

Donation of Madame Louis Stern to the Musée du Louvre on July 5, 1926

Description

The lion was found, along with a contemporary mortar (now in Vilanova i la Geltrú, Museu Victor Balaguer), at the site known as El Castellón, in the vicinity of Monzón de Campos, in the year 1849, being acquired in 1872 by the painter Mariano Fortuny, appearing in his studio in the painting of Ricardo de Madrazo in 1874 The workshop of Mariano Fortuny in Rome (Barcelona, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya). In the will of Fortuny, written in the same year, the piece appeared as "364. A bronze lion, Arabic, with cufic characters (antique) valued at one hundred francs".

The dating of the piece, the only one of these characteristics found so far in al-Andalus, has been controversial, ranging between the late 10th and early 11th century and the 12th and 13th centuries, being considered either a work of Caliphate art or an Almohad bronze, currently the preferred date is c. 975-1100.

The animal is standing, supported on its four legs and with its jaws open, with a somewhat rigid appearance and simple, well-defined volumes, elements that seem to be typical of Andalusian bronzes. The tear-shaped eyes are typical of Hispano-Muslim sculpture and were probably originally inlaid with other material. The body is covered with incised ornamentation of great detail and strongly stylized, highlighting the motifs of ataurique, the panel on the chest of the lion in which the plant representation becomes almost a geometric pattern and mane, represented with thin vertical bands ending in eyelets, motifs that appear in the same period in luxury textiles and eboraria and that also show other bronze figures such as the deer of Madinat al-Zahra (Madrid, National Archaeological Museum and Cordoba, Archaeological Museum) or the Griffin of the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Pisa. The tail, of sinuous form, is elaborated independently and is articulated thanks to a bolt located at the end of the animal's back, shows its surface worked with a herringbone motif in relief and ends in a vegetal form.

The piece features on the back and sides two inscriptions in flowery kufic script: ةلما / نملكعشرةبا which can be transliterated as baraka kāmila / niʿma šāmila and translated as perfect blessing / complete happiness, a wish for good auspices for the possessor of the piece and which appears frequently on Andalusian luxury objects.

The lion is an animal traditionally associated with the sovereign since the beginnings of Islamic art, as shown in the mosaic of Khirbat al-Mafjar (c. 744), so the possession of an object with this iconography increased the prestige of its owner and revealed his relationship with the Cordovan center of power. Given the lack of critical agreement on the dating of the work and the fact that the castle of Monzón de Campos was conquered at the beginning of the 11th century, it could also have been incorporated into the castle by a Christian nobleman, who would display it as a luxury object.

Its function is unknown, having been thought to serve as a door knocker, as a cauldron or as a ewer because of its resemblance to pieces like the lion of the Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin, Egyptian work dating from the 11th-12th centuries, the old Keir Collection in London, of Spanish or Sicilian workshop and the Cleveland Museum of Art, a Persian work of the 12th century. It is a perfect example of how the transfer of luxury objects along the trade routes gave rise to similar prototypes in different areas. All of them have the same layout with a tail, which serves as a handle, with an identical curvature.

The articulated tail of the Monzón lion makes it more difficult to hold the object in the hands than in the examples mentioned above, so historiography has generally thought that it served as a fountain spout in the castle. The large opening in the belly of the animal would have served to insert the water pipe, which would come out of its mouth. However, in the bronze fountain spouts known to date, such as the aforementioned deer from Madinat al-Zahra, nor in the larger figures that have come down to us, such as those of the fountain of the lions in the Alhambra or the lions from the maristan of the Nasrid capital (Granada, Museum of the Alhambra), the jaws are never as open as in the lion of Monzón de Campos and the water comes out through a small spout.

Locations

• 1849

  archeological site

  El Castellón, Monzón de Campos (Spain)

• 1872 - 1874

  private collection

  Mariano Fortuny y Marsal Collection, Granada (España) / Roma (Italia) *

• 1875 - 1890

  private collection

  Colección de Eugène Piot, Paris (France) *

• 1890 - 1900

  private collection

  Colección de Louis Stern, Paris (France) *

• 1900 - 1926

  private collection

  Colección de Madame Louis Stern, Paris (France) *

• 1926 - present

  museum

  Louvre Museum, Paris (France)