Crouching Lion Analysis

When studying old art sculptures, it can be very difficult to know everything about the piece. The how, why, and when of a piece can be hard to pinpoint and that lack of information can make a piece more fascinating. The piece that I ended up choosing at the Minneapolis Institute of Art was the “Crouching Lion”. I ended up going with this piece because the size, detail, and the unknown about this piece. Greek artists are believed to be the ones that created this sculpture and it is estimated to be created around the year 330-317 B.C. The “Crouching Lion” was carved into one giant slab of pentellic marble and is still in very good condition. I thought this piece was very beautiful and I thought it would be very interesting to compare this sculpture to others during that time period. The “Dying Gallic Trumperter” is an intriguing sculpture in the …show more content…
Lions also represented protection and served as a sort of guardian for the tomb. It is recorded that the creator of “Dying Gallic Trumpeter” Epigonos was probably aware of previous artworks like “Dying Warriors”. Epigonos likely keep those pieces in mind when creating his own work. He wanted to create an emotional piece and showing someone on their death bed was very common in that era. In conclusion, what made these pieces so interesting to compare would be the period in which they were created. The “Crouching Lion” shares characteristics between Classical and Hellenistic periods. We can now see the end of a style that lasted years and see how sculptures changed during this era. When studying the “Dying Gallic Trumpeter”, we can see how a sculpture in Hellenistic’s prime compares to a sculpture that could have been created during a process of change. Even though these sculptures were created during different time periods, they share enough characteristics that make them interesting to