Montpensier (_Roger Bearing off Angelica on the
Hippogriff_) with any of the animal groups of that decade or earlier, we
can hardly fail to be amazed at the lack of unity in the composition and
the distracting multiplicity of the details. If we compare the _Hunt of
the Tiger_ with the _Asian Elephant Crushing Tiger_ the great
superiority of the latter in the arrangement of the masses, the dignity
of the proportions, and in economy of detail, is at once evident. The
figures of the four stone groups on the Louvre, however, have a certain
antique nobility of design and withal a naturalness that put them in the
first class of modern sculpture, I think.

[Illustration: From the collection of the late Cyrus J. Lawrence, Esq.

THE LION AND THE SERPENT

("LION AU SERPENT")

_From a bronze by Barye_]

One point worthy of note in any comparison between Barye's animals and
his human beings is the intensity and subtlety of expression in the
former and the absence of any marked expression in the latter. His men
are practically masked. No passion or emotion makes its
impression on their features. Even their gestures, violent though they
may be, seem inspired from without and not by the impulse of their own
feelings. His animals on the contrary show many phases of what must be
called, for lack of a more exact word, psychological expression. A
striking instance of this is found in the contrast between the sketch
for _The Lion Crushing the Serpent_ and the finished piece. In the
sketch there is terror in the lion's face, his paw is raised to strike
at the reptile, his tail is uplifted and lashing, the attitude and
expression are those of terror mingled with rage and the serpent appears
the aggressor. In the finished bronze the lion is calmer and in obvious
possession of the field. The fierce claws pushing out from their
sheathing, the eyes that seem to snarl with the mouth, the massive paw
resting on the serpent's coiled body combine to give a subtle impression
of certain mastery, and the serpent is unquestionably the victim and
defendant in the encounter. It is by such intuitive reading of the
aspect of animals of diverse kinds, that Barye awakens the imagination
and leads the mind into the wilderness of the untamed world. He is
perhaps most himself when depicting moods of concentration. The fashion
in which he gathers the great bodies together for springing upon and
holding down their prey is absolutely unequaled among animal sc