Pisa Griffin

[2][page needed] The Pisa Griffin is the largest medieval Islamic metal sculpture known, standing over three feet tall at 1.07 metres (42 in).

Furthermore, the griffin may share a similar method of construction, and therefore origin, as the Al-Andalusian fountainheads based on the metallic contents of its bronze alloy.

The griffin has the head of an eagle, ears like those of a horse, wattles of a rooster, wings, and the body of a lion and other mammals’ limbs and toes.

"[5] The wings are decorated with stylized feathers, the chest with overlapping semi-circular scales, and the back with a pattern of plain circles enclosed in two rings on a textured background.

[9] Among the group of non-portable early Islamic bronze animals, two have been clearly made as fountainheads: a lion, perhaps from Sicily and rather later in date, and a 10th-century hind (female deer) from Cordoba.

The 16th century historian al-Maqqari noted there were “...marble basins with elaborate spouts at the palace of Madinat al-Zahra” adorned different animal heads.

However, this theory has been recently questioned by some historians, because the griffin does not contain any remnants of a hydraulic system needed to push water through its mouth.

[15]A more recent theory, based on the remains of its internal features, is that both the griffin and a smaller lion in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, were designed to emit noises from their mouth, as a kind of mechanical toy known to have been enjoyed in Islamic courts.

[19] Locating the area where the griffin was made has been the subject of considerable debate concerning the regions of Al-Andalus, Egypt, Sicily, North Africa and other places suggested at various points.

In the Hermitage Museum, an aquamanile of a cow and calf being attacked by a lion later had the throats of the animals cut with a sharp groove, apparently to make it clear that they are dead.

[23] Oleg Grabar suggests that the engraved decoration may be "translations into cheaper bronze" of inlays and enameling found on gold and silver Byzantine objects.

[29] The griffin was placed on a platform atop a column rising from the gable above the apse at the east end of the Pisa Cathedral, probably as part of the original construction that started in 1064.

Once viewed closely, the Kufic inscription made its Islamic origins visible, although Murray's Handbook for Italy in 1861 fantasized that, "Though Arabian, it is as clearly not Mahometan, and it is most probably an idol or a talisman belonging to the Druzes, or some other of the tribes who even still secretly reject the doctrines of the Koran.

[34] In Pisa, the griffin joined other trophy pieces of prestigious bronze sculpture displayed at the heart of the civic space like (later) the Horses of St Mark and the lion on a column in the Piazzetta in Venice.

[35] It forms a part of probably the most famous ensemble of Romanesque architecture in Italy in the Piazza dei Miracoli, looking at the Leaning Tower of Pisa with the Baptistry behind it.