Lion-shaped ceiling or sill bracket or corbel, XVI century. Marble. Measurements: 45 x 13 x 15 cm. It is most likely that this shoe or corbel was a piece designed to be attached to an architectural complex, possibly to a roof or a sill. It takes the form of a lion with long mane, with a fierce attitude showing its jaws. The lion was an iconography from the Hellenistic period, popularized in medieval Europe, conceived as a representation of the power of death, and influenced by the funerary role of the figure of the lion in the Christian religion. It is a metaphor in which lions represent danger, but also power and protection.

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