Medici lions
The Medici lions are a pair of marble sculptures of lions, one of which is Roman, dating to the 2nd century AD, and the other a 16th-century pendant; both were by 1598 placed at the Villa Medici, Rome. Since 1789 they have been displayed at the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence. The sculptures depict standing male lions with a sphere or ball under one paw, looking to the side.
Copies of the Medici lions have been copied and publicly installed in over 30 other locations, and smaller versions made in a variety of media; Medici lion has become the term for the type.
, a similar ancient sculpture, now at the Louvre
A similar Roman lion sculpture, of the 1st century AD, is known as the Albani lion, and is now in the Louvre. Here, the stone used for the ball is different from the basalt body. Both may derive from a Hellenistic original.
History
A pair of lions were required by Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who had acquired the Villa Medici in 1576, to serve as majestic ornaments for the villa's garden staircase, the Loggia dei leoni. The first lion originates from a 2nd-century marble that was first mentioned in 1594, by the sculptor Flaminio Vacca, by which time it was already in the collection of Ferdinando; Vacca reported that it had been found in the via Prenestina, outside Porta San Lorenzo. According to Vacca, the lion had been a relief, which was carved free of its background and reworked by "Giovanni Sciarano" or Giovanni di Scherano Fancelli, of whom little is now known.The second was made and signed by Vacca, also in marble, as a pendant to the ancient sculpture at a date variously reported as between 1594 and 1598 or between 1570 and 1590. The pair were in place at the Loggia dei Leoni in 1598 The pendant was made from a capital that had come from the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.
The Villa Medici was inherited by the house of Lorraine in 1737, and in 1787 the lions were moved to Florence, and since 1789 they flank the steps to the Loggia dei Lanzi at the Piazza della Signoria.
The sculptures were replaced by copies at the Villa Medici when Napoleon relocated the French Academy in Rome to the villa in 1803. These copies were made by the French sculptor Augustin Pajou.
Copies
The original Medici lions have since 1789 stood in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Piazza della Signoria, Florence. There is a smaller bronze left-looking sculpture attributed to Italian sculptor Pietro da Barga and the same period. Later copies or replicas include :Spain
- Twelve sculptures in bronze by Matteo Bonucelli da Lucca, commissioned in Rome by Velázquez for the Room of Mirrors at the Royal Alcazar of Madrid :
- * Four sculptures are now in the in the Royal Palace of Madrid.
- * Eight sculptures are now in the Museo del Prado, of which four support the tabletop of Rodrigo Calderón.
- Sculptures in Colmenar marble at the, Valencia by José Bellver.
- Sculptures in marble at the, Alicante.
Sweden
- Sculpture in bronze in the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts building, Stockholm.
- Sculpture in bronze at the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm.
- Sculpture in bronze in Nacka, Stockholm.
Britain
- Sculptures in lead at Stowe House attributed to John Cheere. Formerly placed at Stanley Park, Blackpool.
- Sculpture in the park of Kedleston Hall, carved by Joseph Wilton.
- Two artificial stone versions are found in the garden of the Osborne House, Isle of Wight.
- Sculptures at the Stanley Park, Blackpool. These were produced, by Rupert Harris Conservation, using casts from the former sculptures which were returned, on loan, to Stowe house in 2013.
Russia and Ukraine
- The in bronze at Peterhof Palace.
- Sculptures in marble at the Lobanov-Rostovsky Residence.
- Sculptures in bronze at the staircase of the Mikhailovsky Palace.
- Sculptures at the entrance of Yelagin Palace.
- The Lions at the Dvortsovaya pier in bronze at the Admiralty embankment.
- Sculptures at the pier on the western point of Yelagin Island.
- Sculptures in marble at the Vorontsov Palace, Odessa.
- One pair of marble lion sculptures at the Voronstov Palace, Crimea.
- Pair of lion sculptures at Starosinnyi Garden, Odessa.
- Lion sculpture at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine Botanical Garden.
Italy
- Sculptures in marble by Augustin Pajou at the Villa Medici.
Germany
- Four miniature versions surrounding the Akademie- or Löwenbrunnen in the palace garden, Stuttgart.
- Two gilded versions as part of the Lion Fountain in front of Glienicke Palace, Berlin.
- Statues at the entrance of Schloss Monrepos, Ludwigsburg.
Cuba
- Two versions outside the Cathedral de la Purisma Concepción in Cienfuegos, Cuba.
United States
- The Florentine Lions in cast-iron in the Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.
- Stone sculptures, Mick and Mack, at McMicken Hall, The University of Cincinnati, Ohio. The pair of lions originally belonged to Jacob Hoffner, a wealthy Cincinnati landowner who bequeathed them to the University upon his death in 1891. They were transported to their current location in 1904.
- The pair of lions on the western end of the eponymous Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine, Florida.
- Sculpture in limestone at the Museum of Outdoor Arts, Colorado.
Estonia
- The Swedish lion in bronze in Narva, Estonia. A version of one of the Slottslejonen was first erected in 1936 but destroyed 1944 during the German occupation. A sized-down copy of the Medici Lion in the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts was re-erected in 2000.
Lithuania
- Sculptures of lions are in bronze at the staircase of the Vytautas the Great War Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania. They were donated by Lithuanian count Jonas Jurgis Tiškevičius in 1938 from his Astravas Manor in Biržai suburb. Sculptures was made in Saint Petersburg's factory commissioned by Lithuanian count Jonas Tiškevčius in the middle of the 19th century.
France
- Several sculptures at the Terrasse des Orangers in Parc de Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine, Paris.
Hungary
- Statues at Pétervására, Hungary.
Close imitations
- Sweden: ' in bronze, by Bernard Foucquet at the Royal Palace, Stockholm.
- United Kingdom: Sculptures in bronze at the Queen's Gate entrance to Royal Victoria Park in Bath.
- Belgium: Lion of Waterloo in iron, by Jean-François Van Geel in Waterloo.
- India: Fitzgerald Bridge statue in Pune, India.
- Spain: The ' in bronze at the Congress of Deputies, Madrid, Cast in 1865, installed 1872.
- Finland: Parolan Leijona on a pedestal in Hattula. Erected in 1868 to commemorate the 1863 visit by Alexander II of Russia.
In popular culture