Representations in the West

Lion riddled with arrowsBas-relief in the north palace of Nineveh.The lion is often represented in the figurative arts. The lion is the image of royalty and the sun and grows throughout the Middle East. In Babylon, for example, the Processional Way is decorated with bas-relief ceramic tile lion shaped  time of Nebuchadnezzar. Assyrian art, which influenced the art of the steppes and the art of many tribes conquered by the nomadic warriors, also depicts many hunts lions, very realistic. This type of representation was intended to glorify the king, Beastmaster, and also represent the defeat of the enemy. The theme of the Wild, often a cat or a bear, jumping on its prey is very common. Assyrian art has brought a taste for realism and naturalism to his tribes, which is then transmitted throughout Eurasia, including the Germanic peoples and asiatiques.

Among the Greeks and Romans, the lion guardian figure, so the doors of lionesses protecting the palace of Agamemnon against the enemies and démons. In Greek art, the motive hunting scenes of the Nemean lion, whose skin is the attribute of Hercules is very present. Among the Romans, it is also represented as an animal circus, fighting against the gladiateurs. In Christian art, the lion sometimes accompanies St. Jerome, or strength, it is the symbol of Mark the Evangelist, of royalty. King of beasts in the medieval bestiary, it is very present in monumental art.

From the Renaissance, representations of animals are becoming more and more anatomically accurate: the artists perform to the representation of real subjects detained in zoos. Henri Rousseau's famous for his paintings of the jungle, and especially The gypsy asleep when a lion approaches a solitary bohemian sleeping in the desert. In the nineteenth century, many zoological illustrations made by naturalists show specifically the lion