2022
Oil on Canvas
65 x 50 cm, 25.5 x 20 Inches
Alfred
Cart de Lafontaine discovered a unique golden lion sallet (helmet) in 1833.
This important artefact of Italian provenance (c. 1475-80) is now in the
collection of The Metropolitan Museum in New York. The sallet represents the
Nemean Lion from the tales of Hercules and the soldier wearing this piece of
armour would have seen the battlefield through what is the mouth of the lion.
Could it be that de Lafontaine commissioned the Lion’s Mouth Garden based on
this special discovery? Although once planted with roses, the Lion’s Mouth
Garden is now home to many subtropical plants gifted from Tresco Island in the
Isles of Scilly.
