A Figure Study of a Lion and Porcupine
Bib. Nat. ms. fr. 19093, fol. 48
Villard's 'LEO' is an interesting case of his ability to draw animals. While a fairly accurate rendering of a lion, or at least one you might recognize, his description that "Here is a lion seen from the front. Please remember that he was drawn from life" seems a bit hard to believe. You can still discern the geometric construction of the the face (with the compass center between the eyes and the faint remains of the circle under the hairline and on either side below the nose) and the hair is perhaps more befitting of a model book for a Greek god than the king of the jungle. The little porcupine in the lower left corner, too, is reasonably realistic, but Villard's claim here that it is "a little beast that shoots its quills when aroused" owes more to the bestiary tradition than reality. Its legs are more like those of a dog (which presumably would have been closer at hand than a porcupine) and its face (like the lion's) has a distinct human character to it. As a side note, Villard's only use of Latin in the entire manuscript is the word 'leo' on this page.
On the lion, see Madeline Harrison Caviness, "The Simple Perception of Matter and the Representation of Narrative, ca 1180-1280," Gesta 30.1 (1991): 48-64.
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