Barthelemy Prieur, Lion Devouring a Doe

The painting above is titled Lion Devouring a Doe ( that is exactly what the sculpture depicts so, very original title!). It was sculpted by an artist named Barthelemy Prieur, who was a French Artist and lived from 1536 to 1611. Though the artist himself was French, this sculpture in particular is mostly inspired by works that were created in Italy at the time. It is said that the artist studied art in Rome in his youth which would explain the influence of Italian art in this sculpture. In fact, this sculpture is almost a copy of an Italian sculpture ( also on display at The Frick), where a lion is devouring a horse that is resisting the lion. Here, the horse though is replaced by a much less resisting and rather powerless doe. So, though the artist is French, the sculpture is heavily influenced by Italian Renaissance art, because of this it is predicted that the sculpture was made in the late 1500’s ( predicted to be 1583, or slightly before). This particular sculpture was made out of bronze, as was the inspiration for this sculpture by the Italian artist (Giovanni Francesco Susini) that depicted the horse instead of the doe.

In this sculpture, the lion is noticeably ferocious looking as a lion normally looks, which makes this lion look more realistic than some of the pieces we viewed in class. Almost immediately you notice the lion’s mane which is very textured to look like real fur, and it is depicted in a way in which when looked at you almost already know what that fur would feel like if you were to actually touch it. To me, it looks a lot like the hair of the beast from Beauty and the Beast. Taking a closer look, the eyes of the lion looks very vicious,  one of the eyes is looking more towards the viewer while the other is looking to the side, notice that neither of the lion’s eyes are looking at the doe which is being devoured, which makes the lion look somewhat apathetic. As well, the lion’s body looks very muscular which is strange for the metallic medium of the sculpture which is rather rigid but, here is used to created rather muscular limbs and body which, give the lion a heavily powerful look. The lion’s claws/ nails are heavily emphasized so though you cannot see the teeth the paw that is on the doe has very visibly sharp claws on it that can do a lot of damage to the pray.  As well, though the teeth are not visible, what is visible is sort of bite marks on the doe’s body that indicate the lion’s teeth are able to do fatal damage when used to devour.  Lastly, the dimensions of the lion in comparison to the dimensions of the doe are much bigger which is used to emphasize the point that the lion is superior in the situation and is generally a powerful animal when it comes to the action of devouring.