The Lion of Venice was made in China

The winged lion that stands on the column in St. Mark’s Square in Venice that is an icon of the city was made in China. A new metallurgic study of the bronze has discovered a large part of it originated from 8th century China and after making its way to Venice, was mixed with other parts and reconstructed in to fit the standard iconography of the winged lion, symbol of Mark the Evangelist and of Venice itself.

Based on research done after a 1980s restoration, the statue was believed to have been made in Anatolia during the early Hellenistic era (4th century B.C.), but a study of the lead isotopes in the metal alloy found they came from mines in the lower basin of the Yangtze River in southeastern China. Armed with the hard science, researchers reexamined the lion’s design and found characteristic features of Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) sculptures in the head, mane and chest.

This style of creature had a specific function in Tang Dynasty sculpture as tomb guardians. Known as zhenmushou figures, they were fantastical beasts ferocious in demeanor that were placed at tomb gates to scare away evil spirits and protect the spirits of the dead. By the 7th century, they were typically placed in pairs, one with a human-like face, one with a lion or beast-like face.

Some of the characteristic features shared by St. Mark’s lion and zhenmushou figures include wide nostrils with a moustache pointing up on each side, a wide open mouth with a pair of wide-set canines in the top jaw and more narrow set ones on the bottom, a flat plate of teeth between them and prominent orbital sockets in which horns were mounted. The orbitals are truncated in the lion, indicating that it too had once had horns or antlers, but they were amputated to make him look more lionine. His ears also appear to have been trimmed and rounded, as the original zhenmushou ears were higher and pointed.

The lion likely made its way west over the Silk Road through India and Afghanistan, which had a very active flow of trade during the Tang Dynasty. That flow was closed off for some centuries after, reopening at the time of Marco Polo’s voyages in the 13th century. There are no historical sources recording when the lion came to Venice, or when and how it took its current form. Marco Polo wrote about it after his return from China in 1295, but not only was it already on top of the column at that time, it was already in need of restoration so it had been up there exposed to the elements for decades.

Also, it’s huge — more than 13 feet long and weighing three tons — so the fact that there are no references to its transportation and erection suggests it arrived in more manageable pieces. Analysis of the samples from various parts of the sculpture found it was recast in parts and Frankensteined together in at least five or six phases, and that’s before Napoleon looted it and French construction workers dropped it and broke it into 20 pieces when they were forced to give it back after his defeat.

* This article was originally published here