Vatican Museums

The two lions are depicted squatting, in an aggressive pose with their mouths open in the act of roaring and poised to pounce. Although essentially realistic, the two statues have a somewhat stylised form, with scarce attention to anatomical details. According to archaic Etruscan funerary use, they were probably arranged symmetrically, with the tail visible on the external flank.
Lions are not part of the indigenous fauna of Italy, and entered Etruscan iconography by way of the animalistic repertoire of the Orientalising period, already present in the seventh century B.C. Here, the prototype of northern Syrian origin (as may be inferred by the square head and the curved open mouth) betrays influences of the Ionic style in the anatomy (broad rounded surfaces), which was transmitted to Etruria especially after the mid-sixth century B.C.