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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Larry Moran, post: 1040560, member: 4580&quot;]Yours is a very nice example, moonshadow,&nbsp; and your presentation and images are very nice as well.&nbsp; : )</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s more from wikipedia...</p><p><br /></p><p>The initiative to create the monument was taken by Karl Pfyffer von Altishofen, an officer of the Guards who had been on leave in Lucerne at that time of the fight. He began collecting money in 1818. <u>The monument was designed by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, and finally hewn in 1820–21 by Lukas Ahorn,</u> in a former sandstone quarry near Lucerne.</p><p><br /></p><p>The monument is dedicated Helvetiorum Fidei ac Virtuti (&quot;To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss&quot;). The dying lion is portrayed impaled by a spear, covering a shield bearing the fleur-de-lis of the French monarchy; beside him is another shield bearing the coat of arms of Switzerland. The inscription below the sculpture lists the names of the officers, and approximate numbers of the soldiers who died (DCCLX = 760), and survived (CCCL = 350).[2]</p><p><br /></p><p>The pose of the lion was copied in 1894 by Thomas M. Brady (1849–1907)[3] for his Lion of Atlanta in the Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia.</p><p><br /></p><p>-------------</p><p><br /></p><p>Mark Twain on the Lion Monument</p><p><br /></p><p>The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff — for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies.</p><p><br /></p><p>Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered, reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion — and all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of Lucerne would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where he is.</p><p><br /></p><p>--------------------</p><p><br /></p><p>My NOTE:&nbsp; It seems the designer and sculptor were probably influenced by Kempson&#039;s Lion, </p><p>engraved about 20 years earlier, examples of which had made it to Europe, undoubtedly.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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