A Lion Confronting a Dragon
ca. 1500–1510
Medium
Pen and brown ink
Dimensions
Sheet: 5 3/4 x 8 11/16 in. (14.6 x 22.1 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Brooke Russell Astor Bequest, 2013
Accession Number
2013.202
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the early 16th century, the vibrant Renaissance in Tuscany, an anonymous artist captured a dramatic clash between a lion and a dragon in pen and brown ink drawing, *A Lion Confronting a* (ca. 1500–1510). Measuring just 5 3/4 x 8 11/16 inches, this intimate sheet exemplifies the period's mastery of preparatory sketches and standalone works on paper. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, it reflects the Tuscan tradition of precise, expressive line work honed by artists in Florence and Siena. The lion, a symbol of strength, nobility, and protection—often l...