Lion
1500-1350 BCE
Description
Lion standing with legs close together. It is made of five parts: both forelegs in one piece, separate rear legs, upper body and head, and base. The open mouth reveals the hollow interior of the statue. Modeled face. The long tail curls over the animal's back, pointing to its left flank. Body and head are largely intact, although the legs were discovered broken into several fragments. The right rear leg is missing a fragment at the upper end. The rectangular base of the statue is flat; its coarse reddish clay glazed only where the coating has dripped down from the figure. The vitrified glaze is the only apparent adhesive holding together the components of the statue. The glaze is generally faded, although occasional bright patches of color remain, particularly on the legs. Starr assembled the fragments in Iraq following their discovery. The lion was disassembled and restored in 1980 in the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies of the Harvard Art Museum.
Dimensions
38.8 x 14 x 37 cm (15 1/4 x 5 1/2 x 14 9/16 in.)
Provenance
Excavated from Yorghan Tepe, Iraq (January 1930).
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