good over evil. Lion Crushing a Serpent-1832 By Antoine Louis Barye (1796-1875)
Bronze, height 54″ (granite base 38″)
French sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye helped establish a 19th-century school known as the animaliers, artists who focused on animal subjects, frequently as stand-ins for human emotions. The lion (the french monarchy) symbolizes the power of good, who conquers the serpent, who represents evil.
The Fairmount Park Association purchased this piece in 1891 and it was placed in the center of Rittenhouse Square in 1893. The bronze cast in Rittenhouse Square is a bronze cast of the original that now stands in the Salle de Barye of the Louvre.
