The Statue
See also: Medici lionsThe hill is surmounted by a statue of a lion mounted upon a stone-block pedestal. The model lion was sculpted by Jean-François Van Geel (1756–1830). The lion is the heraldic beast on the personal coat of arms of the monarch of The Netherlands, and symbolizes courage; its right front paw is upon a sphere, signifying global victory. The statue weighs 28 tonnes (31 tons), has a height of 4.45 m (14.6 ft) and a length of 4.5 m (14.8 ft). It was cast at the iron foundry of William Cockerill in Liège, whence it was brought by canal barge from Liège to Brussels, and thence by heavy horse-drays to its final site at Mont-St. Jean, a low ridge south of Waterloo.
There is a legend to the effect that the lion was cast from brass melted down from cannons abandoned by the French on the battlefield. The statue was, in fact, cast of iron in nine pieces, which were assembled at the monument site.
Read more about this topic: Lion's Mound
Famous quotes containing the word statue:
“where the Statue stood
Of Newton, with his Prism and silent Face
The marble index of a Mind for ever
Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“Only he who can view his own past as an abortion sprung from compulsion and need can use it to full advantage in the present. For what one has lived is at best comparable to a beautiful statue which has had all its limbs knocked off in transit, and now yields nothing but the precious block out of which the image of one’s future must be hewn.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)