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Lot Essay
This incredibly rare lion is a masterpiece of the bronzesmith’s art and is one of the only known shield blazons in private hands. Formed of hammered sheet metal, the rampant lion is presented in movement to the left. Beautifully rendered in profile but for its head turned out frontally, he bites a spearhead, which he holds in his raised right forepaw.
The naturalistic details, including his prominent ribs and the raised veins on his abdomen and along the length of his ribs, are remarkable, rendered by cold-working techniques including punching and engraving. His face is framed by prominent ears and a radiating mane of overlapping flame-like locks that descend below, each enhanced with striations. The hollowed eyes were once inlaid in contrasting materials. The spearhead was originally tinned, once creating a bright silver contrast to the original golden hue of the bronze. Along the perimeter is a series of double loops for attachment.
This lion was originally attached as the central motif — called a blazon — of a convex circular shield known as an aspis koilé, or Argive shield. The type was invented towards the end of the 8th century B.C. and used through the Hellenistic period, serving as part of a hoplite’s panoply (see Torres-Hugon, op. cit., 2018, pp. 15-16). Depictions of warriors carrying circular shields are well known on marble reliefs and especially on Greek vases, often featuring animals as the blazons. On shields shown in profile, it seems that some blazons are in high relief.
The motif of a lion biting a spearhead is relatively rare in Greek art. It appears on a 4th century coin from Oeta in Thessaly, which features the head of a lion biting a spear (see P. Gardner, A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum, Thessaly to Aetolia, p. 37, no. 1). Closer in style to the shield blazon is a coin from Venusia, from the 3rd century, with a seated lion similarly holding a spearhead in its raised forepaw, breaking the blade in its mouth (see M. Laffaille, Choix de monnaies grecques en bronze, pl. 5). There is also a silver phalera from the Fedulov Hoard, circa 3rd-2nd century B.C., which has at its center a frontal lion head with a spearhead in its mouth (see fig. 9.3 in V. Sîrbu and V. Bârca, “Figurative Representations on the Phalerae Found between the Ural, the Caucasus and the Balkan Mountains,” in L. Nikolova, M. Merlini, and A. Comşa, eds., Western-Pontic Culture Ambience and Pattern).
Very few bronze shield blazons have survived. Several examples from the Archaic period were excavated at Olympia, including one of a Gorgoneion centered within a whirl of wings, one of a composite Gorgon/Skylla, and one with a winged horse (A. Mallwitz and H.-V. Herrmann, Die Funde aus Olympia, pls. 70-72). Closer in date to the Mougins blazon is a 5th century example depicting a winged griffin, now in the Miho Museum (N. Sekunda, et al., Treasures of Ancient Bactria, no. 16).
The naturalistic details, including his prominent ribs and the raised veins on his abdomen and along the length of his ribs, are remarkable, rendered by cold-working techniques including punching and engraving. His face is framed by prominent ears and a radiating mane of overlapping flame-like locks that descend below, each enhanced with striations. The hollowed eyes were once inlaid in contrasting materials. The spearhead was originally tinned, once creating a bright silver contrast to the original golden hue of the bronze. Along the perimeter is a series of double loops for attachment.
This lion was originally attached as the central motif — called a blazon — of a convex circular shield known as an aspis koilé, or Argive shield. The type was invented towards the end of the 8th century B.C. and used through the Hellenistic period, serving as part of a hoplite’s panoply (see Torres-Hugon, op. cit., 2018, pp. 15-16). Depictions of warriors carrying circular shields are well known on marble reliefs and especially on Greek vases, often featuring animals as the blazons. On shields shown in profile, it seems that some blazons are in high relief.
The motif of a lion biting a spearhead is relatively rare in Greek art. It appears on a 4th century coin from Oeta in Thessaly, which features the head of a lion biting a spear (see P. Gardner, A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum, Thessaly to Aetolia, p. 37, no. 1). Closer in style to the shield blazon is a coin from Venusia, from the 3rd century, with a seated lion similarly holding a spearhead in its raised forepaw, breaking the blade in its mouth (see M. Laffaille, Choix de monnaies grecques en bronze, pl. 5). There is also a silver phalera from the Fedulov Hoard, circa 3rd-2nd century B.C., which has at its center a frontal lion head with a spearhead in its mouth (see fig. 9.3 in V. Sîrbu and V. Bârca, “Figurative Representations on the Phalerae Found between the Ural, the Caucasus and the Balkan Mountains,” in L. Nikolova, M. Merlini, and A. Comşa, eds., Western-Pontic Culture Ambience and Pattern).
Very few bronze shield blazons have survived. Several examples from the Archaic period were excavated at Olympia, including one of a Gorgoneion centered within a whirl of wings, one of a composite Gorgon/Skylla, and one with a winged horse (A. Mallwitz and H.-V. Herrmann, Die Funde aus Olympia, pls. 70-72). Closer in date to the Mougins blazon is a 5th century example depicting a winged griffin, now in the Miho Museum (N. Sekunda, et al., Treasures of Ancient Bactria, no. 16).