From CIF guide Nahid Khan, some researched connections to our Statue of a lion.
I was doing a bit of reading and came across images in different books of lion figures from Islamic arts, and it might be relevant for the golden lion statuette from Muslim Spain.
Lion figure, presumably intended as a fountain head, 11th century CE, Cairo, Museum of Islamic Art (4305)
Couldn’t find on museum web site; doesn’t seem to have a feature that enables searching for specific objects.
Published in Arts of the City Victorious: Islamic Art and Architecture in Fatimid North Africa and Egypt, by Jonathan M. Bloom. Yale University Press / Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2007 (p. 98).
Lion de Monzon, 1000 – 1250 CE, Monzon de Palencia, Espagne
bouche de fontaine
Musee du Louvre
(This one obviously seems especially relevant … )
Incense burner (feline), 12th century CE, Iran
Houston Museum of Fine Arts
Feline Incense Burner, 1100s, Central Asian region
Cleveland Museum of Art
Islamic bronze incense burner (feline), 11th century CE, region not specified (but I’m guessing Central Asia, because of similarity to the above objects with the exception of the one at the Louvre)
Phoenix Ancient Art (art dealer)
Here are the links to the three feline / lion shaped incense burners from Iran at the MMA for the object file on the golden lion statuette from Muslim Spain:
Feline-shaped Incense Burner (of Amir Saif al-Dunya wa’l-Din ibn Muhammad al-Mawardi)
Dated A.H. 577 / A.D. 1181-82. Iran (Taybad).
Incense Burner (zoomorphic / feline).
12th century. Iran (probably Hamadan).
Incense Burner in the shape of a lion.
11th – 12th century. Eastern Iran or Afghanistan.