Tuesday 2 January 2024

 






Tresco Lion


2022
Oil on Canvas
65 x 50 cm
25.5 x 20 Inches


Alfred Cart de Lafontaine discovered a unique golden lion sallet (helmet) in 1833. This important artefact of Italian provenance (c. 1475-80) is now in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum in New York. The sallet represents the Nemean Lion from the tales of Hercules and the soldier wearing this piece of armour would have seen the battlefield through what is the mouth of the lion. Could it be that de Lafontaine commissioned the Lion’s Mouth Garden based on this special discovery? Although once planted with roses, the Lion’s Mouth Garden is now home to many subtropical plants gifted from Tresco Island in the Isles of Scilly.