Mosaic with a Lion Attacking an Onager in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2023

Title: Mosaic of Lion Attacking Onager

Date: 150–200 C.E.

Culture: North African (Sousse, Hadrumetum, Tunisia)

Medium: Stone and glass tesserae

Dimensions: 38 3/4 × 63 × 3 in., 179 lb. (98.4 × 160 × 7.6 cm, 81.2 kg)

Classification: Mosaics

Credit Line: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu, California (73.AH.75)


Lions are a recurrent theme in mosaics, rock crystal figures, and terracotta tiles attributed to North African artisans between the second and seventh centuries. The image of a lion attacking a horselike animal frequently represents the triumph of political authority. Here, an African lion tears into an onager, a wild animal found mostly in western and central Asia. This scene is a small portion of the floor that decorated a villa in Hadrumetum, one of the most important cities in Roman Africa.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/846329