Marble Lion

Tang Dynasty, 618 – 907

Height: 16.2 cm

The white marble lion on a short rectangular base is seated back on its haunches with extended forepaws vigorously carved with bony toes and sinewy legs. A collar-like fold of flesh separates the columnar leg muscles from the shoulders. Its head, carved with a flattened snout, large eyes and gaping mouth exposing two straight rows of teeth, is large for its narrow shoulders and short legs. Three long strands of a split beard are smoothly carved on the chest below the chin in rounded relief. The pointed ears are laid back above the thick, smoothly carved curls of the mane. Its tail curls around the figure’s right side with the end lying over the back paw and below the chest. 
 

This lion bears a strong resemblance to one of the large stone guardian lions along the spirit path of the Qian Ling mausoleum, the tomb of Emperor Gao Zong and Empress Wu Zetian near Xi’an (Qian, Out of China’s Earth, p. 156; also Siren, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century v.4, pl. 431A).
 

Allowing the difference in size and material, there is a marked similarity in the shape of the muzzle, the split beard and the collar of flesh between the shoulders and legs. The large stone lion is probably no later than AD 683, the year of Gao Zong’s death.