Marble Panel with Lion Family in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2007

Marble Panel with Lion Family
From Nola, southern Italy
Carved 800-1000

Accession # 47.100.48

The marble for this relief panel probably came from a Roman sarcophagus. The slab was recarved and reused during the early Middle Ages for a church in Nola, probably to be used as a choir screen. Lions were often used as symbols for Christ in Italy during this period, but the depiction of a family with a male, a female, and a suckling cub is unique.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.