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| Bull and Lion Altar (about 550-500 BC) Centuripe, from the acropolis area at Enna Terracotta, pale yellow-beige clay with inclusions and slip, mold-made, and hand-finished Museo Archeologico Regionale "Paolo Orsi" di Siracusa, inv. 18670 [Cat. no. 53] |
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Bull and Lion Altar (about 550-500 BC)
The preserved front surface of this altar depicts a zoomachia (animal fight). Here, a dynamically rendered lion, agile and muscular, combats a bull struggling to free itself from the lion's deadly embrace. The inspiration for the scene ultimately derives from the Near East. The motif was assimilated by Greek art of the 7th century BC and then spread throughout the Western Greek colonies.Such rectangular terracotta altars are prevalent in South Italy and Sicily and are often found in a funerary context inside or on top of tombs. In antiquity, the lion was considered to be apotropaic, having the ability to ward off evil, like the Gorgon (see cat. nos. 7 and 62). In fact, representations of lions guarded and protected the deceased, signifying the triumph of good over evil, victor over vanquished.
Page 7 of 8 | On the next page: Female Divinity (about 400-350 BC)