Lot Essay
Monumental lions were commonly found as supporters of the portals of Romanesque cathedrals in Italy. They were also incorporated into tombs, perhaps especially north of the Alps, where they are generally found at the feet of the effigies. In the Venetian context, the winged lion, which was the attribute of the city's patron saint, Mark, took on a civic as opposed to a religious function. It is not possible to reconstruct the original context for which the present pair of lions were devised, but it seems more likely that it was secular than sacred. The style of the carving and the comparative realism of the portrayal suggests that they may well have been made in Florence around the middle of the 16th century.