Artist: Artist Unknown
Year: Date Unknown
Materials: Limestone
Dimensions: 5′ x 2′ x 6.5′

About Medici Lion

This sculpture is inspired by Flaminio Vacca’s (1538-1605) lions, commissioned by Grand Duke Ferdinando I in the 16th century for the Villa Medici, Rome. The Italian sculptor displayed a great enthusiasm towards antiquity and the Hellenistic ideals of Classical sculpture: “This statue shows a return to a Classical mode, a work of great vitality and virtuoso realism.”

-Ana Maria Rybko, “Vacca, Flaminio.” Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press, 2007, http://www.groveart.com/