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LION Subject Matter LION Subject matter : Lion Keywords: Lion; Physiologus ; Bestiary; king; Marcus Summary : the lion is a type of feline and it is one of most depicted animals in art throughout history. It is an icon present in all cultures, carrying values of power, strength, courage, dignity or royalty, and it was adopted either in secular as well as in religious contexts. In the medieval world, from a semantic point of view, the lion presents an ambivalent nature, because it can embody opposing positive and negative values. The roots of this double symbolism are present in the authors of Antiquity and the Bible, who claimed, on the one hand, that Christ was “the Lion of Judah” and then compared the lion, on the other hand, to the Antichrist. It has, therefore, a clear Christological dimension enhanced by the exegetes and Christian zoological literature. It is also the symbol of Saint Mark 1 and it accompanies the Maiestas Domini representations as part of the Tetramorphs. The lion is one of the guardian animals par excellence. The lion shape is also a constant resource in political symbolism and the emblems of war. It supplements the image of power and its presence extends to areas as diverse as astrology, embodying the constellation Leo. As in the West, the lion is a common motif in the iconography of power of the Islamic world, and symbolizes courage, strength and royal magnanimity 2. The lion ends up being an attribute of characters, institutions, lineages, territories, etc. Attributes and types of representation : the distinctive features of the lion are its size, its powerful claws, its long tail and especially its hair. However, these elements are not always reflected in the images, which sometimes show a lack of precision which ends up generating confusion 3. Often the animal is stylized by the artist, who alters its real appearance: its body is stretched and deformed, its hair is reduced and it becomes merely a decorative element or it is hypertrophied, as it occurs with its tail. Several factors take part in these changes: conventional designs associated to the absence of a real model, an interest for abstraction, the lack of skill of the artist, etc. From an iconographic perspective, the presence or absence of hair does not always mean sexual differentiation. Due to the influence of sumptuary or luxury goods, especially textiles, it is usual to find the image of the lion in duplicate, such as in pairs facing a tree or another item that functions as an axis of symmetry. This pattern of representation was transmitted to Romanesque sculpture, which adapted it to the surface of the capital in arrangements like that of the couple of felines who share the same head. The rampant position is characteristic of heraldry. In the late medieval period the lion may appear crowned, showing its sovereign status within the animal world. Following this idea, the lion can present other regalia such as the mantle or 1 Its lion-like appearance is inspired by the visions of Ezekiel and Daniel and by the Apocalypse: Ez. 1, 10; Dan. 7, 4; Rev. 4, 7. 2 CHEBEL, Malek (1995): “Lion”, Dictionnaire des symboles musulmans. Rites, mystique et civilisation , Paris, Albin Michel, p. 246. 3 The textual and iconic boundaries of its depiction have been pointed out by BRETÈQUE, François de la (1985): “Image d’un animal: le lion. Sa définition et ses ‘limites’, dans les textes et l’iconographie (XI e-XIV e siècle)”, Le monde animal et ses représentations au Moyen-Âge (XI e-XV e siècles) , Toulouse, Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail, pp. 143-154. the rod, as shown in the images of the Roman de Renart , where it also adopts the body language of royal authority. The image of the lion may appear isolated, as an independent motif, or in narrative contexts. In this sense, it appears in certain biblical episodes where it becomes the protagonist, and it is also present in numerous fables (like the Roman de Renart ), meetings with individuals (such as the lion whose wound was healed by Saint Jerome) and struggles that face the lion with the humans or with other beasts (like Hercules and the Nemean lion, the lions who eat men, lion hunters, etc..). Written sources : the Bible, which mentions the lion 157 times 4, presents an ambivalent image of the animal. In the Psalms (Ps. 7, 3; Ps. 9, 9; Ps. 22, 13. 21; Ps. 56, 5; Ps. 90, 13 5) or in other passages such as 2 Tim. 4, 17 the lion is a creature who is clearly hostile and dangerous. The feline is the protagonist in some famous passages from the Old Testament, such as the punishment of Daniel in the den (http://www.ucm.es/centros/cont/descargas/documento19546.pdf ) or the confrontations of David and Samson with lions (for more information see http://www.ucm.es/centros/cont/descargas/documento19207.pdf ). In these three cases the animal has a negative connotation, and this will be the dominant symbolism of the lion in the biblical texts and the exegesis of the Church Fathers: a fearing and violent being, who embodies the forces of evil and becomes the image of the devil, as recalled by Saint Peter in one of his letters: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5, 8). Nevertheless, the Bible also provides a positive vision of the lion. Not in vain is Christ hailed as “Lion of Judah” in Revelation: “See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed” (Rev. 5, 5). The lion is recognized as the strong and courageous animal par excellence and the emblem of the lineage of Judah in the Old Testament (Gen. 49, 9; Nm. 24, 9, 2 Sam. 1, 23, 2 Mac 11, 11, Prov. 30, 30). That is why the Church Fathers such as Ambrose and Origen see the lion as prefiguring Christ. The image of the throne of Solomon guarded by lions as described in 1 Kings 10, 18-20, and 2 Chronicles. 9, 17-19 had a special prestige in medieval iconography, in which the lion was associated with the throne on many occasions 6. The animal literature is generous in references to the lion during the Middle Ages. Many of the statements referring to the feline repeated in the medieval period come from ancient authors like Aristotle, Aelian 7, Solinus 8, Pliny the Elder 9 or Horapollo 10 , subsequently taken 4 PASTOUREAU, Michel (1985): “Quel est le roi des animaux”, Le monde animal et ses représentations au Moyen-Âge (XI e-XV e siècles) , Toulouse, Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail, p. 135, n. 9. 5 The lion is considered an enemy of the spiritual man when, according to this psalm, the feline and the dragon are represented trampled by the Savior. The quotation is discussed among others by St. Augustine (PL , XXXVII, col. 1168), Cassiodorus (PL , LXX, col. 654), the Glossa Ordinaria ( PL , CXIII, col. 1000), Bruno of Asti (PL , CLXIV, col. 1055), Saint Bernard (PL , CLXXXIII, col. 242), and Peter Lombard (PL , CXCI, col. 853). These authors identify the lion of the psalm as the one who killed the martyrs, and even as the devil. Unless otherwise stated, quotations from the Patrologia Latina used in the text are taken from FAVREAU, Robert (1991): “Le thème iconographique du lion dans les inscriptions médiévales”, Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres , año 1991, fasc. III, pp. 613-636. 6 GARCÍA GARCÍA, Francisco de Asís (2008): “El león y el trono en la iconografía medieval: imagen de poder y exégesis teológica”, CEHA. XVII Congrés Nacional d’Història de l’Art. Art i Memòria. Pre-Actes , pp. 282-284 [Available online: http://www.ub.edu/ceha-2008/pdfs/09-m04-s02-com_13-fag.pdf ] 7 De animalium natura , book V, chap. 39. 8 Polyhistor , XXVIII. 9 Historia naturalis , book VIII, chap. 19. up by Saint Isidore and Hraban Maur, among others. All of them describe carefully the animal and its characteristics. Saint Isidore recognizes him as “rex, eo quod princeps (…) omnium bestiarium,” 11 and is followed by Hraban Maur, who assimilates the lion to Christ 12 , and the De Bestiis attributed to Hugo of St. Victor 13 . The Physiologus , a 2 nd -3rd century alexandrine text translated into Latin in the 4 th century, formed the basis for Medieval Latin Bestiaries . These describe the different parts of the body of the lion: the head, where its ferocity lies; the neck and the hair; the chest, strong and powerful as opposed to the hindquarters, thin and weak (an antithesis which involves moral values of virtue and vulnerability); the feet, the claws, and finally the tail. Besides the physical features there are some behaviour or “natures” of the animal also mentioned, some of them already described in the zoological literature of antiquity. The Physiologus and the Bestiaries that were derived from it, interpret these “natures” in a moral and religious perspective full of Christological overtones 14 . The main characteristics, and those which had the greatest impact in the iconography of the lion, are: - when the lion is going to be hunted down, it erases its tracks or paw prints with its tail to distract its pursuers: a simile of the Incarnation, through which Christ “hided” his divine nature under human aspect. - when the lion sleeps it does it with alert open eyes: an idea of perpetual surveillance applied to Christ, who looks after those who are with him 15 , and whose divinity was veiled in the grave while his human nature slept 16 .
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