Photo of the Week: One of Two Black Granite Lions of Nectanebo I, Vatican Museum

Photo by New York Scugnizzo

Commissioned by Pharaoh Nectanebo I (r. 380–362 BC) of the 30th Dynasty, the statues likely adorned a temple to Thoth at Hermopolis Parva (modern Tell Baqliya) in the Nile Delta. Transported to Rome during the Imperial period, they probably decorated the Temple of Isis in the Campus Martius. Rediscovered in the 15th century, they were installed in 1586 at the Fontana dell’Acqua Felice near the Baths of Diocletian. In 1839, Pope Gregory XVI ordered copies to replace the originals, which were transferred to the Vatican Museums, where they are now displayed in the Pinecone Courtyard (Cortile della Pigna).