This sinewy bronze animal is of a type popular during the sixteenth century, in part due to a model of a panther by the Dutch sculptor Willem van Tetrode (ca. 1525-before 1588). The patina suggests it was cast in the late sixteenth or seventeenth century. Morgan acquired the bronze in 1911 from the dealer Goldschmidt in Frankfurt merely as an "old bronze sculpture representing a leopard," and no attribution has been ventured in the years since. Thus far, no other casts have been identified.
Another sixteenth century lioness in bronze is known through various casts including those in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and The Wallace Collection, London. The Morgan's bronze, however, differs in the pose of the animal and the overall patina.
Female panther or leopard standing with her right paw raised and mouth opened.