Lion of Venice
The Lion of Venice is an ancient bronze sculpture of a winged lion in the Piazza San Marco of Venice, Italy, which came to symbolize the city – as well as one of its patron saints, St Mark – 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[1] or about 1268,[2] bearing ancient symbols of the two patron saints of Venice.
This article is about the ancient bronze statue. For the traditional icon of St Mark, see Lion of Saint Mark.The Lion 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 about 300 BC.[3] The figure, which stands on the eastern column, at some point came to represent the Lion of Saint Mark, traditional symbol of Saint Mark the evangelist. The figure standing on the western column is St. Theodore of Amasea, 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.
History[edit]
Origin[edit]
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 of the most ancient parts of the statue to Assyria, Sassania, Greco-Bactria, 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 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[edit]
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.
Iconography and Popular Culture[edit]
Ultimately, the image of the Lion became a symbol of the Republic of Venice and appeared on its flag.[5] Internationally, it is also well known in the form of the Golden Lion prize, introduced in 1949 at the Venice International Film Festival.[6]
American comedian Conan O'Brien referenced the Lion of Venice in his travel special "Conan Without Borders: 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 reads "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 O'Brien and Schlansky's adventures in Italy while a depressed Italian narrator describes how awful the mock-film and its two subjects are.[7]
See also[edit]
Media related to Lion of Venice (ancient bronze sculpture) at Wikimedia Commons