The famous "St. Mark's Lion" now located in the Piazzetta of Venice is probably the greatest enigma in the relatively sparse repertoire of great ancient bronzes. Representing the Venetian Winged Lion, a powerful symbol of statehood, the sculpture was installed during a time of political uncertainty in medieval Mediterranean Europe, yet its features do not reflect local artistic conventions. A critical re-assessment of the state of art, together with additional stylistic comparisons and historical considerations indicate in the ancient Chinese art styles and iconography used are the roots of the unusual facial features of the 'Lion'. The authors argue that stylistic parallels are found in Tang Dynasty China (AD 618–907).

Lead isotopes analyses (LIA) of the metal in the earliest cast parts of the statue strongly support the hypothesis of a Chinese origin, indicating that the figure was cast with copper isotopically consistent with ores from the Lower Yangtze River basin and thus creating a very early link across the Eurasian silk road [1]. The new involved narrative, therefore, surprisingly tells us about the possible import from China to Venice of an enormous statue of a winged hybrid monster, in the framework of the twelfth century official replacement of the Byzantine urban cult of St. Theodore with that of St. Mark [2][3].