The Lion That Flew Away: The Lamassu in the Llotja del Mar, Barcelona

ABSTRACT It was an exceptional event in the Spain of the second half of the nineteenth century: The Provincial Academy of Fine Arts of Barcelona acquired a plaster replica of a large Neo-Assyrian lamassu, among other replicas, in London. The copy was the work of the Italian company Brucciani, which produced copies of and for British museums. Such purchase did not happen on a whim. The training of students of fine arts and architecture was based on drawing and the study of classical works, thanks to plaster replicas. Lessons included, from the mid-nineteenth century, detailed sessions on the art of all ancient cultures, including the cultures of the ancient Near East, when Western archaeological missions, but not any Spanish ones, were just starting in the Ottoman Empire. This article follows the history of this unique acquisition, until the disappearance of the replica, despite its size, perhaps during the Spanish Civil War.