Collection of Ten French Bronze Bas Relief Portrait Landscape Sculpture Plaques

France 20th Century Bas relief depicts a young woman carrying fowl and a young man with a sheep. The relief was created by dissolved limestone in water running from stalactites int...

THE LION OF THE JULY COLUMN: LION OF THE ZODIAC AFTER A MODEL BY ANTOINE-LOUIS BARYE Patinated bronze on walnut plaque Signed "BARYE", cold-tooled verso "43" Item # 107GWK14D This Fine bas-relief sculpture of Lion de la Colonne de Juillet (Lion du Zodiaque) portrays the astrological sign Leo as a prowling and ferocious lion with a mane that engulfs his head and neck, walking a Fine line along a narrow ledge while opening his mouth like one about to emit a growl. He is set against the equatorial band of the sun's path as it makes its way through the various illuminations of the zodiac. Barye was employed by the architect Jean-Louis Duc to model this bronze lion for the western side of the July Column. Erected in the Place de la Bastille in Paris, the monumental structure commemorated the overthrow of the Bourbon monarchy and the 504 lives lost in the insurrection. Influence for the model is perhaps somewhat owed to Visconti's "Walking Lion" held at the Musée Pie-Clémentin, a more romantic anthropomorphic modeling of this powerful beast. Glenn Benge observed that the lion was likely based on the engraving by Pietro Santo...