German, Lower Saxony, probably Hildesheim, mid-13th century

Private collection, United Kingdom;
with Peter Hempson, London, 1980;
with Alain Moatti, Paris, 1987

London, Peter Hempson, Fine Works of Art, 1980, no. 20

Overall the condition of the aquamanile is good. There is wear and some dirt to the surface consistent with age and handling with some white pigment in the engravings at the hind legs. There are some remnants of a golden lacquer in the crevices around the face and handle. There are a few minor dents, including to the proper left haunch, and some small nicks and scratches. The spot on the top of the head and the top of the handle have small lacunae due to casting flaws. There is a joint visible at the proper right front leg, which is a replacement. The proper right front leg has a rectangular and a circular peg to its inside. A small area on the nose was filled with a different metal. The lid is a replacement. Flat rectangular pins are visible just over each leg and to both sides of the neck, a small copper patch is on the abdomen and a rectangular patch is at the chest. X-radiographs and an XRF-analysis of the present lot are available upon request.
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It is exceedingly rare to find an aquamanile in the form of a leopard. Recent exhibitions concerning aquamanilia in Hildesheim and New York (op.cit.) do not reference any other examples and Falke and Meyer do not list leopards in their seminal survey, other than perhaps the two spotted "beasts" in the cathedral museum of Riga and in an old private collection (fig. 1, op.cit. figs. 397 and 398). The cross-hatched circle decoration that identifies the type of beasts represented here also associates it with a group of superlative vessels produced in Lower Saxony, most of which are now in important public collections of medieval works of art.

The aquamanile is a type of vessel used in Western Europe from the 12^th century onwards. Its name is derived from the Latin aqua (water) and manus (hand). Designed for the washing of the hands, they were used both at the medieval nobleman's table and during liturgical rites of purification (fig. 2). The desire for elaborate tableware in the Middle Ages and the aquamanile's important symbolic function placed them at the centre of the revival of intricate metalwork in Europe.  Lower Saxony played a pivotal role in this process: its rulers controlled empires stretching to Italy and the Near East, bringing back forms and techniques that would inspire many local commissions. Large works of art created there with the use of foreign techniques, such as the great lion at Braunschweig and the baptismal font in Hildesheim cathedral, and the zoomorphic metalwork the Saxons imported from the Near East had a lasting influence on European art.

A number of aquamanilia attributed to 13^th-century Lower Saxony, and Hildesheim in particular, have cross-hatched circles on their coats.  Famous examples include two centaurs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (fig. 3, inv. no. 10.37.2) and the National Museum in Budapest (1860,115) and the royal horseman from the Carrand collection in the Bargello (329C).  Works from this group generally also display the engraved stipples and parallel lines that represent fur on the legs.  

The significance of the fantastic and mythological subject-matter of aquamanilia was generally lost as the objects were removed from their specific context. The exact meaning of the leopard form of this example is unclear. Medieval Bestiaries do feature leopards and describe the animal fairly consistently as stealthy and wily (fig. 4). Bartholomeus Anglicanus' description in De proprietatibus rerum, book 18, also from the 13^th century, presents a typical view: "The leopard is a beast most cruel ... and pursueth his prey startling and leaping and not running... He is less in body than the lion, and therefore he dreadeth the lion, and maketh a cave under earth with double entering... And that cave is full wide and large in either entering, and more narrow and straight in the middle. And so when the lion cometh, he fleeth and falleth suddenly into the cave, and the lion pursueth him with a great rese ... but for greatness of his body he may not pass freely by the middle of the den which is full straight, and when the leopard knoweth that the lion is so let and holden in the straight place, he goeth out of the den forward, and cometh again into the den in the other side behind the lion, and reseth on him behindforth with biting and with claws, and so the leopard hath often in that wise the mastery of the lion by craft and not by strength, so the less beast hath oft the mastery of the strong beast by deceit and guile in the den..."

RELATED LITERATURE
O. von Falke and E. Meyer, Romanische Leuchter und Gefässe, Giessgefässe der Gotik, Berlin, 1935, pp. 112 and 168, nos. 426-427, figs. 397-398; P. Barocchi et al., Arti del Medio Evo e del Rinascimento. Omaggio ai Carrand 1889-1989, exhib. cat. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 1989, pp. 312-313, no. 102; P. Barnet and P. Dandridge, Lions, Dragons, & other Beasts. Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages. Vessels for Church and Table, exhib. cat. The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, New York, 2006, pp. 98-101 and 106-109, no. 9 and 11; M. Brandt (ed.), Bild & Bestie. Hildesheimer Bronzen der Stauferzeit, exhib. cat. Dom-Museums Hildesheim, 2008, pp. 320-325, nos. 33-34