Iconography of the Day: Lion

Symbol of St. Mark the Evangelist, Cologne Cathedral, modern stained glass window, south nave aisle.

The lion is a symbol of power and dominion and may be called the "king of beasts". It is connoted with the sun because of its ray-like mantle and golden coat. The lion's front legs are associated with divine power and the hind legs with human weakness. The duality of the icon made it popular in royal medieval heraldry, exhibiting human nature's ability to do good and evil. Since the lion is a beast of power and dominion, it is associated with secular and non-secular governing bodies. The tribe of Israel is represented the Lion of Judah, the name of the tribe of Israel's patriarch, Jacob:
"You are a lion's cub, O Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?" Genesis 49:9

The prophet Isaiah tells of a descendant of stately and divine power, with Absolute dominion and wisdom:
"A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD." Isaiah 11:1-2

Thereby, the Lion of Judah became iconographically associated with Jesus:
"Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals." Revelation 5:5
Jesus is from the royal line of David through the flesh of his earthly Mother:
"Regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God^b]"> by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 1:3-4

The Tree of Jesse is a common iconography used to depict Christ's royal lineage and physical claim to the divine throne. In the unusual example of the Hours of Catherine of Cleves, Tree of Jesse folio, the Lion of Judah is represented at the foot of Jesse, father of David, as a dog.

Artist
Illuminated by the Master of Catherine of Cleves

Title
Hours of Catherine of Cleves, St. Anne with the Virgin and Child (fol. 292v); service (prayer) of the Virgin

Origin
The Netherlands, Utrecht

Date
ca. 1440

Dimensions
7 1/2" x 5 1/8"

Current location
On loan to the Metropolitan Museum, NY
Purchased by The Morgan Library on the Belle da Costa Greene Fund with the assistance of the Fellows in 1963

MS 917

Description of work according The Morgan Library and Museum Online Exhibition: "Wearing an old-fashioned wimple, the elderly Anne is enthroned with her daughter, Mary, who is seated at her feet holding baby Jesus. The page as a whole emphasizes genealogy: the three figures of the miniature are the ultimate flower of the vinelike Tree of Jesse that grows from that ancestor of the Savior sleeping in the bottom border. King David is shown at the left of Jesse and, at the right, what may be the lion of Judah. Twelve crowned heads represent Christ's subsequent royal ancestors."

Other significant iconographical associations with the lion include St. Mark the evangelist, emphasizing Christ's Resurrected Form, and the cross of St. John that depicts the uncontrolled strength of the lion, symbolic of the Anti-Christ.
Cross of the Venerable Order of St. John