Venice’s iconic winged lion statue originated in ancient China

Venice’s famous bronze statue of a winged lion, which stands atop a pedestal in St. Mark’s Square, took an intercontinental trip to Italy.

This symbol of medieval Venetian statehood started out as a tomb guardian sculpture in China’s Tang Dynasty, say archaeologist Massimo Vidale of the University of Padua in Italy and colleagues. Tang rulers held power from A.D. 618 to 907.

During the 1260s or shortly thereafter, the fearsome-looking Chinese sculpture reached Venice, where local artisans modified its features to create a winged lion, Vidale’s team reports September 3 in Antiquity.

A tomb guardian statue “was possibly encountered by Venetian emissaries to China in the mid 1260s and modified in Venice sometime between 1270 and 1290,” Vidale says. “But there are different plausible scenarios.”

Tang tomb guardians sported lion muzzles, flaming manes, horns, wings and pointed ears. Some scholars have suggested that roughly 2,300-year-old Mesopotamian or Persian depictions of mythical, lion-headed griffins inspired the makers of Venice’s lion statue.

But the Venetian winged lion more closely resembles a Tang tomb guardian, the scientists say. On closer inspection, the bronze lion displays signs of having its horns removed and its ears shortened.

Distinct forms of lead identified in metal samples from the lion statue’s original parts closely match the lead composition of copper ore deposits in China’s Lower Yangzi River basin, the researchers report.

Initially regarded as a religious symbol, winged lion depictions became an emblem of Venetian political power in the early 1260s. Columns in St Mark’s Square, including one supporting the lion statue, were erected around that time. Researchers have not found any documents citing a date for the lion’s placement atop its column.

A big mystery concerns how an ancient Chinese tomb guardian statue reached medieval Venice. One possibility suggested by the researchers: Marco Polo’s father and uncle, who visited the Mongol court in what’s now Beijing from 1264 to 1268, may have sent the original statue to Venice along the Silk Road.

Perhaps the Polos viewed the Chinese statue as a good candidate for conversion into a Venetian winged lion. For now, any such scenario remains speculative.