Striding Lion

Striding Lion, a wall relief made from polychrome glazed, fired bricks, is one of the most iconic objects on display at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.

A large group of such figures is part of the Processional Way leading to the Ishtar Gate, a centrepiece display of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

[2] The ceremonial hall in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II had a tiled wall decorated with glazed columns, lotus buds and palmettes with lions striding around the base, of which the example in the Royal Ontario Museum is one.

[1] Robert Koldewey suggested that the lions, and other reliefs lining the Processional Way, were made using molds taken from a master clay panel, or from a temporary wall with a plaster facing that had been cut down into brick sized segments.

The system of marks used for assembling the reliefs could be most clearly seen on the tiles from the ceremonial hall because of the way they had fallen after robbers had taken bricks from the wall.