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Here's the San Francisco museum lion | |
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A Clever Investigation of Clever's cover page for this issue features the stone lion that guards the entrance to the Palace of Legion of Honor Art Museum in San Francisco. It's just one of thousands of such statues that can be found everywhere in the world. On my recent trip to Italy I started taking photos of them, but there were so many of them that they began to blend into the scenery. |
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 Here's a photo of the stone lion that guards the entrance to the Chicago Institute of Art. |
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I have been wondering about the historical and symbolic significance of these stone lions, so I tried to research it on the internet. No luck with the answer. I even asked Jeeves (ask.com). He didn't have the answer either, but he did try to sell me a stone lion (any size) of my very own. A Clever staff member who is more tenacious than I am did a follow-up search with the Internet Public Library (IPL.com). He submitted our question to them and they have accepted it for research. They say the research will take a week and they will get back to us. When they do, Clever will post an update to this issue with the answer. So check back soon and we'll tell you what we've learned! (PS. 4 years later we're still waiting!) There are lion statues everywhere. These objects must have some special significance, but apparently we need no written text to explain that meaning. Lion, the king of beasts, stands for courage and strength, as we all know, but why do they guard libraries and art museums? And we're all familiar with stone lions who appear to be reading books. What's that all about? Maybe we'll find out. But if you already know the answer, please share it with us. Fire off an email to editor@clevermag.com. |
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 Here's another lion photo, this one is holding up the roof of a building in Bergamo, Italy. |
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On the other hand, even if we never find out the answer, they certainly are splendid works of art in their own right. I'll continue taking photos of them and admiring them whenever I notice them, but they are so commonplace that often I stumble right over them, just like my housecat, faithful companion and Clever mascot, TC. Maybe there is something to be learned there as well. Always on guard and often unnoticed.
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