Lioness with prey

Venanzo Crocetti's "Lioness with prey" looks more like a game than a triumph, more than a natural act due to the need to feed, appears as a whim of supremacy: the lioness holding the prey steady on its front legs and stretching the muzzle is a masterpiece of realism in the feline attitude of sliding over the victim leaving the hind legs raised, in tension, ready for a new shot. The sly attitude, with the muzzle that does not reveal its jaws, refers to an unnecessary oppression, inflicted on a being so much weaker that he never had a chance, sacrificed without the need to engage in a fight; the beast is not hungry, it rather seems to enjoy the pride of conquest, leaving the prey intact. The anatomical study of animals is admirably represented by the skeleton that transpires under the skin of the lioness. In general, the representation of the animal world was always at the center of Crocetti's anatomical interests, a subsidiary on which to observe the variety of volumetric masses.