A winged dragon fighting a lion
Pen and wash combat of beasts, with faint marginal figure sketches
A large winged dragon rears up with its long tail coiled overhead and its jaws locked toward the maned head of a roaring lion below, the two beasts entangled in violent combat; the group is drawn in pen and brown ink with brown wash, broadly modelled with light and shadow. Scattered around the margins are several much fainter, lightly sketched secondary studies, including small clustered figure groups at the left and upper right and slighter heads and forms at the right. A Uffizi collection stamp appears at the lower left.
On this page
Dragon and lion locked in combat
The lion crouches at the lower right, mouth open in a roar, while the dragon lunges down over it with open jaws. The muscular bodies, the lion's mane and the dragon's clawed limbs are rendered with washed modelling that gives weight and movement to the struggle.
The fantastical winged dragon
The dragon is an invented beast, with a serpentine neck, bat-like membraned wings raised at the upper left and a long tail that curls back over its own body. Such a battling monster belongs to the tradition of allegorical and bestiary imagery rather than natural history.
Faint marginal figure groups
Around the edges of the sheet are several very light preparatory sketches, including a small cluster of embracing or struggling figures at the left, a similar group at the upper right, and slighter heads and forms toward the right margin. They are drawn far more faintly than the central combat.