The Lion and the Serpent

Secret Treasures of the Richelieu Wing

Antoine Louis Barye, Lion and Serpent Room 105 (Cour Puget), Richelieu wing, Level -1

Lion with Serpent

Antoine-Louis Barye

You can almost hear him roar. This bronze lion impresses by his size and realism and the intensity of the moment represented. The serpent rears up, ready to attack, while the lion tenses, ready to parry. The sculptor, indeed, slightly exaggerated his muscles to underline the fierceness of the battle.
We are in the 1830s. Never, before Antoine-Louis Barye, had artists represented animals this way. The sculptor spent much time at the zoo of the Jardin des Plantes, observing the animals. Together with the painter Eugène Delacroix (Liberty Leading the People), he studied and sketched them. With Barye, the animal became the main subject of the work, and not merely an element of the setting.

Another Interpretation

A masterpiece of Romantic sculpture, this lion may also be seen as a metaphor of King Louis-Philippe's assumption of power in 1830. The lion is one of the most frequent royal symbols. Furthermore, the king’s accession to the throne took place under the constellations of the Lion and the Hydra (or serpent).