COUNTER COVER 17

THE LION

The lion, like the rest of the animals represented in popular Serrano embroidery, appears most of the time with two features that have led scholars to draw controversial conclusions about its meaning. Within the contours of the lion’s body, a heart or a trout is frequently depicted, and there tends to be a collar around the lion’s throat separating the head from the body.

Some authors have seen the colar as a representation that the animal is dead as an influence from the Arab world, where the depiction of live animals was forbidden by the Islamic religion. The heart or another internal figure conversely points to a symbolism representing life and living creatures.

In Iberian ceramics from Azaila, birds appear with collars across their necks and with decorated openings in the place of the heart, so we can venture that this symbolic manifestation may have Hispanic roots prior to the arrival of the Arabs.