A FRENCH WHITE MARBLE MODEL OF THE MEDICI LION

The huge original model of this lion was carved by Flaminio Vacca in the 16th Century, as a pendant for the Antique (which is modelled with its proper right paw on the ball rather than left), and the pair once stood in the garden of the Villa Medici. They are now on the steps of the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence.
Comparative literature: F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique, London, 1981, pp. 247-250.