Of excellent quality and large size, this bronze lion stands on a figured marble base. It is of great colour and has a really super look about it. The original Medici lions are a pair of marble sculptures of lions, one of which is Roman, dating to the 2nd century AD, and the other a 16th-century pendant. By 1598 both were placed at the Villa Medici, Rome and since 1789 they have been displayed at the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence. The sculptures depict standing male lions with a gilded sphere or ball under one paw, looking to the side.