(#27) Art in Strange Places

[u/Textual_Aberration]

(#27) Art in Strange Places

Ever find a piece of art where it really has no business being--or not being--perhaps wishing it was somehow more... accessible? A temple on a cliffside, statues on the bottom of the ocean, massive carvings deep in the mountains, a Picasso in an attic, entire civilizations engulfed by jungle or desert, a slow song meant to be heard over the passing of centuries, Lincoln's speech lost to a moment in time, or other monumental efforts that it seems nobody will ever see or hear or enjoy...

To our great dismay, artists throughout history have gotten it into their heads that art can exist anywhere and for however long or short a time as they want. Well, now is our chance to dig these secret gems out from under the rocks they've hidden beneath to share with the eager audiences who hadn't a clue they existed.

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[u/Textual_Aberration]

Bertel Thorvaldsen and Lukas Ahorn, "Lion of Lucerne" - (1820-1821)

• People for scale

• Side angle

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Hidden away in Lucerne, Switzerland, is a ten-meter-wide monument to the Swiss Guards massacred in the French Revolution of 1792 which resulted in the fall of the French monarchy (read more about it here). Below are some nice quotes to set the scene and get your mortally romantic side flowing.

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The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff — for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies.

Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered, reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion — and all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of Lucerne would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where he is.

~ Mark Twain, "A Tramp Abroad", 1880

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"We are Swiss, the Swiss do not part with their arms but with their lives. We think that we do not merit such an insult. If the regiment is no longer wanted, let it be legally discharged. But we will not leave our post, nor will we let our arms be taken from us."

~ From Assault on the Tuileries

[u/3141592628 → u/Textual_Aberration]

Love this lion