Islam Museum Islam Museum islam.museum
Search ⌕ ARENUR
Accessibility
Text size 100%

Saved on this device only — nothing is sent anywhere.

The Pisa Griffin

الغريفين من بيزا

The great 11th-century Islamic bronze that crowned Pisa's cathedral for centuries — the largest Islamic bronze animal sculpture.

Depth

At a glance

Identifiers
Wikidata
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

In time

104010501060
The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era

Images and figural artArts of the book

Overview

A large Islamic bronze griffin statue of the eleventh century, probably from al-Andalus or the Mediterranean; it stood for centuries on the roof of Pisa Cathedral as a spoil of war. 1

Impact

The largest surviving bronze animal sculpture from the Islamic world; today it is in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Pisa. 1

People and things also explored

Horse colours and markings in Timurid painting· Aniconism in Islam· Arabesque· Girih· Hedwig glass· Islamic calligraphy· Islamic geometric patterns· Islamic lustreware

Sources

  1. Wikidata
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The Pisa Griffin”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/object/griffin-pisa/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-17.

Improve this page on GitHub · Report an error · JSON

Wing

Objects

Manuscripts, art, architecture and relics from collections worldwide. Related

Horse colours and markings in Timurid painting

Timurid manuscript painters drew horses in distinct colours (white, red, yellow, black) and markings (blazes, leg whites, spots). Fayed reads these differences as evidence of real horse types in Samarkand, Herat and Shiraz, and uses them to place paintings in their centres.