Ref: 2353

A Pendant Medici Lions

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Ref: 2353

A Pendant Medici Lions

Circa 1820 - 1830
Terracotta
60 x 73 x 32 cm (23⁵/₈ x 28³/₄ inches)
Italy
Literature:
Michel Hochmann: Villa Medici, the sogno of a Cardinal – Collections and artists of Ferdinando de Medici. 1999, pp. 208–11, plates 37–40
Exhibition:
Museo della Terracotta, Siena/Italy
Museo del Fischietto in terracotta, Sicily/Italy
Description: After a model by Flaminio Vacca (Rome 1538–1605)

Terracotta

Dimensions: 60 cm high, 73 cm long, 32 cm deep

The Medici lions are the two lion sculptures that were placed around 1598 on the staircase on the garden side of the Villa Medici in Rome and moved to the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence in 1789.
Each of these two mirror-image lions, facing each other, rests its paw on a globe, an allusion to the six globes in the Medici coat of arms. Lions of this type are referred to as Medici lions in iconography and the art trade. Due to their association with the Medici family, the lions became symbols of political power and economic wealth, and were therefore frequently imitated and installed in appropriate locations as symbols of power.
Flaminio Vacca was commissioned by the Medici to create his pair in the column capital, which came from the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.

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