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Lion's Head from Under the Pulpit

Johann (Jan) Pfister

Basic information

ID: С-I-904
Author: Johann (Jan) Pfister
Name: Lion's Head from Under the Pulpit
Date of creation: 17th c.
Technique: carving
Material: wood
Dimensions: 21 x 18.8 x 9.5 cm (height x width x depth)

Additionally

Type: sculpture 3D
Genre: animal painting
Provenance: Lviv region

Information about author

Author: Johann (Jan) Pfister
Artist's lifetime: 1573–1640/1642
Biography: Johann (Jan) Pfister (Jan Hanusz-Snycerz) – a sculptor of German origin, was born in 1573 in the city of Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) into the family of the painter and sculptor Georg Pfister. He studied under master craftsmen from the Netherlands and Germany (Hans Fleiser, Friedrich Gross, Gerhardt Hendrik). Pfister is considered the most outstanding sculptor of the turn of the 16th–17th centuries who worked in the territories of present-day Ukraine and Poland. He worked predominantly in marble and alabaster, and less frequently in wood. He executed his finest works in Lviv, Berezhany, and Tarnów.
Starting from 1615, commissioned by Adam Hieronim Sieniawski, he began working in Berezhany on the tomb monuments of the noble Sieniawski family: Adam Hieronim and his three sons – Aleksander, Mikołaj, and Prokop. He led a woodcarving school in the town. Working as the court sculptor to the Sieniawskis, he carved altar compositions in the church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Bishche in the Ternopil region, which also belonged to the family. The master worked on the decoration of the altar during the 1630s. Pfister proved himself a highly professional artist who took his first creative steps under the influence of German-Netherlandish Mannerism.

Object description

In addition to monumental works, Jan Pfister performed many small sculptures, including the heads of cherubs, angels, and mascarons. "The Lion's Head from Under the Pulpit" belongs to such small works. The sculpture represents the head of a lion with an open mouth framed by wavy curls of the mane that are made in a manner typical of the artist. The raised arches of the eyebrows over the small and deeply set eyes give the sculpture a horrifying look.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Lion's Head from Under the Pulpit

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