Here you see a ginormous “Foo Dog,” as the guardian lions of Chinese architecture are known in the West. These statues began to flank the entrances to homes of the elite during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (14th-20th c). Standing for strength and power, they appear in pairs, with the left lioness (as indicated by the cub at her foot) and right male lion (he appears with a ball) representing nourishment and protection, respectively. This Foo Dog with her pup was larger than life, and made in the 1600s probably for the court at Bejing. A detailed close-up shows extraordinary sophisticated use of cloisonne, metalwork in which thin wires are soldered and attached to a metal base.
Source(s): The Asian Collection at the Penn Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology.
