The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal Volume 5 1977

Fig. 3: Tufa Sphinx Vienna, Private Collection
That the Getty sphinx and the Vienna sphinx were
originally seated rather than standing sphinxes, is
testified by more complete examples and, 9 to a large
extent, by a series of winged lions carved in nenfro. Two
lions which can be dated to the early years of the 6th
century B.C., one in the Ashmolean Museum with its
wings missing (Fig. 5), 10 the other from Vulci with sickle
wings yet preserved, (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fig.
6), 11 show striking similarities with the Getty sphinx in
the rendering of specific details on the body. The deeply
modelled horizontal planes at the sides of the lion's
body are reflected by the incised lines on the Getty
sphinx. In addition, they possess the same broad curved
band which, judging by the New York lion, represents
the upper edge or border of the wing. For the decorative
treatment of the area from the shoulder muscles down
to the forelegs, the Ashmolean lion offers a particularly
Fig. 4: Tufa Centaur from Vulci Rome
close analogy to the Getty sphinx. 12
On the evidence of the close proximity in style
between the heads of the Getty sphinx and the Vulci
centaur and the analogies drawn with the winged lions,
the Getty sphinx may be a product of a Vulci workshop
and dated to the first quarter of the 6th century B.C.
9. Notizie degli Scavi di Antichita 1931, p. 234, fig. 4; U. Tarchi,
L'Arte Etrusco-Romano nelVUmbria e nella Sabina I (Milan, 1936),
pll. II, HI; A. Hus, pi. XXXVI, 34; Bull ofMFA LXII (1964), p. 108,
fig. 9; and D. Strong, The Early Etruscans (New York, 1968), p. 61.
10. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, inv. no. 1963.32; See Bull ofMFA
LXII (1964), p. Ill, fig. 14.
11. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. See Bull ofMFA LXII,
(1964), p. 112, fig. 16; Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
October, 1960, p. 45; and E. Richardson, pi. XVII.
12. Note the same area on the winged lion in Boston, inv. no. 61.131:
Bull ofMFA XLII (1964), p. 112, fig. 15.
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