Description

The clear contours, the rough appearance, the excellent plastic formulation full of tension and the concentration of the gaze on the viewer are the main achievements of the great artist who created the bronze lion, dated around 575-550 BC. and decorated copper flatware, perhaps a rectangular grate. The posture of these animals, sometimes crouching and sometimes upright, is dictated by the position they occupied as decorative elements of the bronze vessels, «ζῳδίων ἔξωθεν πλήσαντες περί τὸ χεῖλος» (Herodotus I.70). The viewer has the feeling that the lion is ready to pounce.