A timeworn but still ferocious marble medieval lion stares out, with a horned bull or ox, from the entrance portal, sculpted in Pisan Romanesque style, of the Chiesa di Sant’Anastasio in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. The animals are among examples in Lucca of work by artists following Lombard architect and master sculptor Guido or Guidetto di Bonagiunta Bigarelli, known as Guido da Como (1220 - c. 1257). Sant’Anastasio lay redundant and empty for many years before its revival by the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Lucca, Tuscany, Italy: a marble medieval lion, its jaws lost to the ravages of time, stares with hollow eye sockets alongside the head of a horned bull or ox on a carved capital of the central portal in the brick facade of the ancient Chiesa di Sant’Anastasio in Via Sant’Anastasio. The animals, together with a fierce lion devouring two serpents on the other side of the entrance, are sculpted in the Pisan Romanesque style and are amongst surviving examples in Lucca of work by artists influenced by Lombard architect and master sculptor Guido or Guidetto di Bonagiunta Bigarelli, known as Guido da Como (1220 - c. 1257). He was responsible for sculpture on the west front of Lucca’s Duomo or Cattedrale di San Martino, an architrave over the entrance to the city’s Chiesa di San Pietro Somaldi, the baptismal font in the Baptistery at Pisa, and for a pulpit and other sculpture in churches at Pistoia. The Chiesa Sant’Anastasio dates from the 9th century AD. Its current appearance derives from 13th century renovation, which left it with a single nave built in brick and a lower façade of white limestone. After many years lying idle, redundant and deconsecrated, it was revived by the Romanian Orthodox Church, with its interior walls and vault redecorated in the Orthodox style.
Size: 3655px × 2437px
Location: Chiesa di Sant’Anastasio, Via Sant’Anastasio, Lucca, Tuscany, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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