The Master of the Lions – capital on the rostrum of Serrabone

Almost all of the capitals of the rostrum in Serrabone[1] are exclusively zoomorphic in theme. The simplest motif is comprised of a succession of lions on each of the four sides of the capital.  These animals were once used to decorate the leaf angles with arches overhead. They rise up on their hind legs and their heads are joined to the neighbouring animal. Solidly built, the lion is an integral part of the basket. A lion’s head as an ornamental motif tended to be used very freely. Here the enormous jaws that jut out are altogether captivating in their illusion while the bodies are purely conventional and ornamental in their poses.

The motif of the lion recurs frequently in the Romanesque sculpture of the Roussillon; we see it most notably in the cloister of Saint Michael of Cuxa where the lions follow one another, either addorsed or affronted and ordered in an ornamental rhythm to match the architecture. The workmanship of the heads is particularly refined, each one alike with fringed jaws and sharp fangs, a thick tongue and matted mane. 

The lion and the opposed group repeated indefinitely in these two sculpted patterns were already a favourite subject in Oriental textiles, where the animals are most often symmetrically disposed around a central axis—the ancient tree of life. We can easily see a parallel between the zoomorphic sculpted capitals of Serrabone and Islamic motifs, such as those we find on textiles from the Iberian Peninsula. Hence, the “textile with lion-strangler” found in the tomb of San Bernat Calbó, bishop of Vic, buried in the cathedral in 1243, belongs to the famous “Baghdad group”[2]. This title comes from a silk weave found in the tomb of San Pedro de Osma (who died in 1109) on which a pseudo Arabic inscription claims that the cloth was manufactured in Baghdad. But judging from the spelling of the first word and after studying other comparable pieces in conservation in Spain, these lampas[3] with their similar characteristics show that they were manufactured on the Peninsula during the first half of the 12th century, perhaps even in Almeria or Seville, which was the capital of the Almoravids in Spain. Many other Almoravid textiles feature stylised lions, as, for example, the textile with addorsed lions in a medallion in conservation at the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid in which the two beasts arch back in complete symmetry, their heads turned to touch each other in the centre of the composition.

Precious Oriental cloths were among the greatest luxuries in the West and often served as vestments for the church or shrouds for the bodies of saints or for the safekeeping of relics. Romanesque sculptors undoubtedly drew much inspiration from these textiles; although their interpretations were never pure imitations. While they tended to draw from the rhythmic disposition of the ornamentation, they sought to harmonise their designs with the capital of a pillar or to fill in a corner or as a grouping, always adding an imaginative flourish here and there. These affronted lions are not uniquely of Serrabone or Cuxa origin as they can be seen in many Romanesque productions. In the whole of south-western France, this decorative motif became a traditional motif which was not necessarily always an outgrowth of specific Oriental models.  

[2] Museu Episcopal de Vic, MEV 791. The man strangling two lions held under his arm is a figure derived from Chaldean Hercules and the hero of Gilgamesh, a figure often represented on textiles, such as on the shroud of Saint-Victor in the Treasury of Sens.

[3] Lampas introduced an additional crossover of the warp thread. This technique appeared around the year one thousand in textile productions in the Near East and was used for silk weaves in Byzantium and throughout the Islamic world.