Early Byzantine Polychrome Limestone and Marble Mosaic of a Lion

The lion is simply standing, rather than hunting or fighting. While the creature may have been part of a larger composition of exotic animals within a geometric border, it could well have been part of a Christian composition, one of a pendant pair on either side of the Biblical Tree of Life.

Early Byzantine I, 5th–6th Century AD

Height: 98.7 cm. (38 7/8 in.)

Width: 122.5 cm. (48 1/4 in.)

#6745

Ex: Private collection, New York by the 1980s. With Antiquarium, Ltd., New York 1989. More recently, another private collection, New York 1996.

Published: Antiquarium; Ancient Treasures XX. (London, 2022) p.43

Comparanda:Brooklyn Museum, New York acc. no. 05.18Musée National du Bardo, Tunis