Personalized marble sculpture of Saint Mark’s Lion

This lion, complete of head, paws, book and base, is a monumental, commemorative solid marble statue sculpted by hand in the round. The wings and the tail have been assembled with precise joints in order to make the point of connection almost invisible.

Material: Rosso Verona. Go to the marble sheet.
Dimensions: 300 x 120 x h 150 cm
Final weight: 2500 kg
Customer: private company
Destination: Venice – Italy

Relevant phases of the work realization

Selection of the raw material

The work had to be placed outside and therefore subject to bad weather. For this reason it was important to use a good, solid material, without veins and holes, to avoid the problem caused by the water infiltrations that over the years may cause cracks. We have personally selected the suitable marble block in the quarry.

More information: marble selection

Planning

The customer wanted a magnificent and exclusive Saint Mark’s lion.

We have personalized every aspect of the work, realizing an elegant posture and creating a clay model, in a smaller scale, to mould the lion according to the customer taste and preferences.

More information: artistic and technical design

Manufacturing

Following the traditional techniques, we have made the head and the wings clay models in scale 1:1 in order to achieve a better understanding of the proportions, to obtain the definitive customer approval and to determine the dimensions that had to appear in the marble.

The raw material block had a starting weight of almost 15000 kg and could be only handled with the fork-lift truck or with the crane.

Normally the different manufacturing phases are realized in the individual cabins, but for this order we have prepared a unique and temporary work station to minimize the movements and to allow our sculptors to contemporarily work together.

More information: artisanal manufacture

Assembly

The statue had to be placed in a garden where it was impossible to access with motorized vehicles and every handling would have been difficult.

So we have attached the wings and the tail in our workshop and delivered the completed work.

More information: assembly and installation

Packaging and transport

Since it was a fragile and voluminous sculpture, we have studied a suitable packaging for a safety transport and final placing of the work. The wings and the tail have been fixed to prevent damages.

We have realized a protective customized wood crate arranged to be handled with the truck crane from outside the garden. The delivery was entrusted to a specialized carrier. The packaging has been removed after the definitive positioning of the statue.

More information: packaging and transport

Pills of history

The lion of Saint Mark is the symbol of Venice, well-known all over the world. In the blog you will find the history of the winged lion and some traditional representations.

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