Double Lion Capital

CultureItalian

Dateca. 1200

MediumMarble

DimensionsOverall: 8 1/8 × 16 × 6 1/8 inches, 66 lb. (20.64 × 40.64 × 15.56 cm, 29.94 kg)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number47-82/2

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

Exhibition History

N/A

Gallery Label

Lions were popular imagery for the capitals of columns of medieval church porches. Bishops sometimes passed judgment on religious and secular matters from these outdoor porches where images of lions were symbols of justice. A medieval populace would have understood the reference to King Solomon, the famed judge whose throne was flanked by two lions (I Kings: 10, 19). The two capitals here represent a popular type found in southern Italy and Spain. They depict a lion crouching on a leaf and the heads and forelegs of lions arranged end-to-end. The muscles and fur are indicated by simple geometric patterns, and the manes and mustaches are also stylized.

Provenance

Conservatorio di Santa Anna, Pisa, Italy, by September 14, 1939 [1];

Purchased from the Conservatorio di Santa Anna by the dealer Francesco Ciardiello, Florence, September 14, 1939-1947;

Purchased from Ciardiello, through Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1947.

NOTES:

[1] As reported by Ciardiello on the U.S. Consular Invoice, dated August 25, 1947, copy in NAMA registration files.

Published References

Marilyn Stokstad, “Romanesque Sculpture in American Collections. XV. Kansas City, Missouri and Lawrence, Kansas.”, Gesta XVI, no. 1 (1977): 55, (repro.), as Double lion.

Walter Cahn, ed., Romanesque Sculpture in American Collections: New York and New Jersey, Middle and South Atlantic States, the Midwest, Western and Pacific States (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1999), 219, (repro.), as Two capitals.

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