3-003-869 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Colossal marble lion from Cnidus, 1861. '...a magnificent example of colossal Greek sculpture...Its dimensions are 10ft. in length and 6ft. in height...The body is crouching...It was generally in fine condition; but being...exposed to the weather, the surface had suffered in some degree, though not to an extent to destroy the main anatomical markings, which retain their original boldness. The entire lion has been sculptured out of one block of Parian marble, with the exception of the forepaws, which had been united to the body by a joint, and are lost...This fine piece of sculpture was discovered on the slope of a cliff on a bold headland, opposite to Cape Crio, overlooking the sea...[one of several] sculptured remains, the result of the excavations conducted by Mr. C. T. Newton, when Vice-Consul at Mitylene, on the site and in the neighbourhood of the mausoleum at Halicarnassus, now known by the Turkish name of Budrum, in Asia Minor. These works are of the date of the middle of the fourth century [BCE] - the very best period of Greek art; and their interest and value to the connoisseur and the student of art cannot be overrated, being superior to that of many of the collections which now fill the spacious avenues of the British Museum'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.