The lion attacking a calf or deer was one of the most versatile and long-lived motifs in Greek art. If you turn to glance at the vases in the case behind you on the bottom shelf, you’ll see a lion attacking a deer on an amphora between a pair of eyes. The exact meaning of an animal combat like this is unknown, but it must have something to do with a violent meeting of opposites, perhaps between wild ruthlessness and tame resignation.

Now turn back to the marble sculpture. The artist has put the lion in a very contorted position in order to adapt the animals to the shallow depth of the relief. The body appears in profile and the head from the front. A flame-like pattern describes his mane, and paint was applied to heighten the details. The artist, one expects, has seen more calves than lions and seems to have observed the calf's peaceable expression from life. Look at the large open eye, the way the ears are folded back, and the mouth that seems to smile.

This fragment shows only the front part of the calf. The other part is in Athens, with another lion feasting on it. Together the two pieces probably formed the decoration of a pediment, the triangular space beneath the gable of a building with a pitched roof. The full sculpture probably decorated a small marble structure. It may have stood in Athens, on the Acropolis, a rocky hill that rises above the city. In the pediment of this building, the lion and calf stood above eye level; crouch down a bit beneath the sculpture to get this perspective, with the lion's eyes looking down at you.