Aquamanile in the Form of a Lion

c. 1350

Follower of Johannes Apengeter
(German, active about 1325-50)

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.

Status: On View, Gallery 236
Department: Applied Arts of Europe

Artist: Foundry of Johannes Apengeter
Title: Aquamanile in the Form of a Lion
Place: Germany (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1325–1375
Medium: Copper alloy
Dimensions: 25.5 × 28.8 × 11.8 cm (10 1/16 × 11 1/4 × 4 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Through prior bequest of the George F. Harding Collection; Chester D. Tripp, Jane Gidwitz Memorial; and European Painting and Sculpture Purchase funds
Reference Number: 2010.30
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/200644/manifest.json

Otto von Falke and Erich Meyer, Romanische Leuchter und Gefässe: Giessgefässe der Gotik, (Berlin, 1935), pp. 76 and 114, no. 473, fig. 445.
Ursula Mende, Die Türzieher des Mittelalters (Berlin, 1981), p. 99.

Collection Siljeström, Göteborg, before 1935 [see von Falke and Meyer 1935]. Aronoff Collection, Paris, by ca. 1959 [according to Blumka Gallery, in conversation, 2009]; Paris, Sotheby’s, November 25, 2008, no. 19; sold to Blumka Gallery, New York; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2010.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.