Lion attacking a horse

South-German, 17th Century


LION ATTACKING A HORSE

Bronze, Lost Wax
South-German, 17th Century

Provenance:
Berwind Collection, Newport – Rhode Island USA
Art Loss Register: S00254902



H 27 x W 36 x D 21 cm
H 10 2/3 x W 14 1/8 x D 8 1/4 inch








This bronze group, made in South Germany in the 17th century, is a dynamic reinterpretation of a celebrated antique marble known as Lion Attacking a Horse, prominently displayed in the Palazzo dei Conservatori on Rome’s Capitoline Hill. The original Hellenistic prototype, attributed by scholars to the Pergamene school (late 2nd Century B.C.), was rediscovered during the Renaissance and became a touchstone for artists fascinated by the expressive rendering of violent struggle and anatomical precision.

The composition exemplifies the Baroque taste for dynamic movement and emotional intensity. The lion, its musculature finely articulated and mane rendered in energetic spirals, sinks its claws and fangs into the neck of the rearing, collapsing horse, whose contorted body communicates the agony of defeat. The sculptor captures not only the physical power of the beasts but also a poignant psychological charge, especially in the lion’s almost anthropomorphic facial expression.

The bronze, cast using the cire perdue (lost wax) method, displays meticulous surface chasing and a rich patina, consistent with 17th-century South German bronze workshops influenced by both Italian prototypes and Northern precision. The underside reveals remnants of the original casting process, including the typical irregularities of core material and pour channels.

Such reductions of antique models were highly prized by collectors and humanists in early modern Europe, functioning both as emblems of classical erudition and as demonstrations of technical virtuosity. Comparable examples were made by German founders in Augsburg and Nuremberg, who supplied bronzes to princely courts and cabinets of curiosities across the Holy Roman Empire.
References:

• Haskell, Francis and Nicholas Penny. Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500–1900. Yale University Press, 1981.
• Boucher, Bruce. Italian Baroque Sculpture. Thames & Hudson, 1998.
• Wittkower, Rudolf. Sculpture: Processes and Principles. Penguin Books, 1977.