Follower of Johannes Apengeter
(German, active about 1325-50)
Aquamanile in the Form of a Lion
INV-2006
Follower of Johannes Apengeter
(German, active about 1325-50)c. 1350
Aquamanile in the Form of a Lion
Follower of Johannes Apengeter (German, active about 1325-50) →decorative arts
Date
c. 1350
Medium
Copper alloy
Dimensions
25.5 × 28.8 × 11.8 cm (10 1/16 × 11 1/4 × 4 3/4 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Through prior bequest of the George F. Harding Collection; Chester D. Tripp, Jane Gidwitz Memorial; and European Painting and Sculpture Purchase funds
As the name suggests, an aquamanile—from the Latin for water (aqua) and hand (manus)—is a ewer intended for hand washing. While such vessels were used in both sacred and secular rituals during the Middle Ages, they were also inventive sculptural objects. They usually featured animal forms that could be either whimsical or imposing. This aquamanile, produced by a northern German artist around 1350, takes the shape of a lion, but incorporates three other creatures: a dog that is locked in the lion’s fierce jaws, a basilisk or winged dragon on the lion’s back forming the pitcher’s handle, and a serpentine creature at the end of the lion’s tail.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
Leaf from a Picture Cycle: Christ Appearing to the Three Marys, Christ and the Pilgrims on the Road to Emmaus, Doubting Thomas, and Christ Appearing to the Apostles
French Painter, active in Northern France
The Ascension of St. Dominic in a Historiated Initial "G" from a Gradual
German (Cologne) follower of Johannes von Valkenburg (German, flourished 1299)
