17th century, Florentine School
Lion with heraldic shield
Stone, cm 38 x 48
The present sculpture depicts a heraldic lion proudly holding a shield, which is itself elaborately emblazoned. The lion, represented in the prime of its early maturity, with its mane fiercely ruffled and a magnificent characterization of its muzzle, extends all of its claws, indicating to the viewer, in its decisive expressiveness and the imminence of its attitude, to observe the coat of arms.
On the shield is sculpted the classic heraldic figure of a rampant lion, natural, without weapons, and not tongued. The animal decisively arches its tail (in heraldry, it is described as tailed) while grasping with its forepaws the trunk and branch of what is likely a stylized oak; not surprisingly, the definition of "rampant" derives from the Latin rapere, indicating the tenacious act of seizing something.
Regardless of the preceding iconographic instances of the rampant lion to a plant, which are to be found in the metaphorical strength of the natural world that climbs the tree of life, so dear to the Persian world, the present sculpture therefore represents a double affirmation of power, being a heraldic lion, in three dimensions, holding a coat of arms. Therefore, following in the wake of the totemic beasts that have become city emblems, this lion closely resembles the Florentine marzocco ("little Mars"), the animal symbol of the Tuscan city, which anciently entered the collective imagination thanks to the weather vane on the Arnolfo Tower of Palazzo Vecchio (now located in front of the Salone dei 500). It is no coincidence that the Florentine Republic, on the occasion of the visit of Pope Martin V, commissioned Donatello (1419-1420) to sculpt the Marzocco Lion holding the coat of arms of Florence, to be placed on the staircase of the papal apartments of Santa Maria Novella. The artist depicted it seated, just like the present one, with evocative majesty. Although later Donatello's Marzocco was moved to the more suitable premises of the Bargello Museum, a copy in the same site of Piazza della Signoria, where the work was immediately diverted, still reminds us of the symbol of the Florentine Republic.
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