{
"data": {
"id": 141741,
"accession_number": "1965.323",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Pair of Lions, c. 1940s. Africa, West Africa, Republic of Benin, Fon style, unknown carver. Wood; part 1: 36 x 53.4 x 17.8 cm (14 3/16 x 21 x 7 in.); part 2: 36 x 59.8 x 21.6 cm (14 3/16 x 23 9/16 x 8 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Ralph M. Coe in memory of Ralph M. Coe, 1965.323",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Pair of Lions",
"creation_date": "c. 1940s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1940,
"creation_date_latest": 1949,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Africa, West Africa, Republic of Benin, Fon style, unknown carver"
],
"technique": "wood",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "African Art",
"collection": "African Art",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Part 1: 36 x 53.4 x 17.8 cm (14 3/16 x 21 x 7 in.); Part 2: 36 x 59.8 x 21.6 cm (14 3/16 x 23 9/16 x 8 1/2 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"part 1": {
"height": 0.36,
"height_inch": 14,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.1875,
"width": 0.534,
"width_inch": 21,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"depth": 0.178,
"depth_inch": 7,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.0
},
"part 2": {
"height": 0.36,
"height_inch": 14,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.1875,
"width": 0.598,
"width_inch": 23,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.5625,
"depth": 0.216,
"depth_inch": 8,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.5
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 300794,
"title": "Year in Review: 1965",
"description": "Year in Review: 1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27-November 14, 1965).",
"opening_date": "1965-10-27T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 441481,
"title": "Gallery One 2012",
"description": "Gallery One 2012. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2012-March 5, 2017).",
"opening_date": "2012-12-12T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Dorothy Coe (Mrs. Ralph Coe)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131965",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art by gift",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1965\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "In the style of the Donvid\u00e9 school founded by Aqueminon Donvid\u00e9 in 1909, this lion was created for the royal family at Abomey as well as for French colonial officials and foreign visitors. Rulers of the powerful Fon kingdom of Dahomey possessed objects that glorified their military might and spiritual power. Each object had visual symbols or crests recalling a praise or \"strong name\" of its owner. Powerful lions with full manes, symbolic of the 19th-century king Glele, were borrowed from European heraldry sources because no lions existed in this part of West Africa. Metaphorically, the lions alluded to Glele's victories over his enemies.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80041428"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 303",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n327"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 303",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n327"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 411",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n431"
},
{
"citation": "Hovaguimian, Vroni. Images and Words. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 98",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Smith, Fred T., Judith Perani, Joseph L. Underwood, and Martha J. Ehrlich. The Visual Arts of Africa : Gender, Power, and Life Cycle Rituals. Second edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 179-180, no. 6.20",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1965.323",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of Mrs. Ralph M. Coe in memory of Ralph M. Coe",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 141741,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1965-09-11T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1940,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1940s",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "cover",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-24 11:47:17.441000"
}
}