PAIR OF LIONS

Pair of lions, made in polychrome wood, as an architectural finial. The two animals are lying down, the male playing with a ball held between his front claws, while the lioness plays with her cub. The decorative treatment is the same in both figures, with incisions along their bodies to show their fur, with the features of the face very marked, and the tail turned upwards, all of this being adapted to the architectural framework for which they were intended. As a decorative motif, it was very recurrent in the architectural decoration of palaces (for example, Forbidden City, Beijing) and temples, always represented in pairs. They are also known by the name of “fo lion”, alluding to their Buddhist origin, since the Buddhist religion in Chinese is designated by the character “fo”, and the lion was originally associated with the figure of Sakyamuni the historical Buddha. I.C.F./ Extracted from: Isabel CERVERA FERNÁNDEZ: Fundación Rodríguez-Acosta. Asian Art Collection. Granada, 2002.