It was in Baltimore and Walter Museum that I began to see the work by Antoine Louis Barye.

His lion and serpent, one of his most popular work (which he has three version in different
size) is brutal and vivid. The intensity of the lion at the moment to crash the snake makes
even the liberty place in the back less striking. The motive has a remote connection to the
city witnessing the delcare of independence.

Here is an excerpt from Antique Magazine, Oct 2006:

The symbolic connections between lions and royalty are familiar,
but the sculpture bears more particular associations with the
July Monarchy (1830-1848) of Louis Philippe, for it was the
revolution of July 27 to 29, 1830, that overthrew the last
of the Bourbon kings and brought the house of Orleans to power.
These three days occur in the traditional astrological houses
of Leo and the Hydra, which are represented on celestial navigational
maps as a lion and serpent, respectively.