Roman Near Eastern Plaque with Lion and Prey Relief

GBP 400.00

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Object Description

A finely modelled Roman-Near Eastern rectangular lead plaque featuring a raised relief of a lion taking down its prey. The image is in high relief, and the details of the lion’s eyes, claws, and mane can be clearly distinguished.The flat appears flat and unworked.

The specific function of the plaque is unclear. Plaques of this type might have been used as furniture or casket fittings, as trade weights, as votive gifts, or as matrices. By pressing the stamp into clay or molten metal, high relief images and decorative motifs of this dramatic scene could be created. The plaque depicts a wild feline violently attacking his pray. The iconographic motifs of lions or felines attacking their prey, such as bulls, horses or stags, were widespread in the Near East and Ancient Persia and were believed to be a visual representation of victory and power. Depictions of bovines being attacked by lions might have been connected with Nowruz, the Persian New Year at the spring equinox, with the bull symbolising winter and the lion spring-summer.

Date: Circa 1st-3rd Century AD

Object Condition

Condition: Extremely fine.

Object Details

  • material
  • dimensions
    W:3 x centimeters

Dealer Opening Times

By appointment only.

Dealer Contact

Telephone
+44 (0)208 364 4565
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+44 (0)7833231322
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Dealer Location

The Gallery
Trent Park Equestrian Centre
Eastpole Farm House, Bramley Road
Oakwood, N14 4UW, United Kingdom

St James's Ancient Art
10 Charles II Street, Ground Floor
St James
London
SW1Y 4AA

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