Together for the future
Who are they?
Our little girl is brave, since she is resting on a lion’s back, turning her own back on danger. Who knows, she may already have tamed the lion and become friends with it, because she is sitting on its back in complete safety, as if the maned beast were positively protecting her.
The Girl and the Lion symbolizes the future.
The birth of The Girl and the Lion
This third sculpture was inspired by history and tourism together. In this case and at the request of his client, the artist took the following themes into consideration:
Saint Margaret of Hungary (Margaret Ruins and the little girl): Margaret, daughter of King Béla IV was raised from age 3 by Dominican nuns. (Budapest’s Margaret Island is named after her.)
Veszprém is the City of Queens (“Almost every little girl wants to become a princess.”)
Veszprém Zoo (The lion is the king of animals; in this case he is the prince by the side of the princess.)
The Girl and the Lion’s site, plans and concepts
The park side end and castle side pillartop of the pedestrian bridge at the far end of Kollégium Street. Its background is Margaret Ruins, with a sight of Veszprém castle in the opposite direction, and the zoo located a short walk away. The choice of the site and the final form of the sculpture are evocative of the specific locations, and beyond this, by a wide associative domain, of the City of Queens and of linking past to present to future. The artist put a smartphone in the girl’s hands. A teenager today may really think it is a smartphone but those who are familiar with the historical aspects of the place may have an association to the Bible or even just a simple book.
The Girl and the Lion was set in its place on Thursday, 3rd September 2020. It received the name LeoNora on Saturday, 14th September 2020 based on the result of the vote.
Initially there were several ideas for a site and possible themes: According to the first idea the girl was to hold a small telescope in her hand but she was not to look into it: rather, the figurine would have invited people to look into the instrument which was to be pointed towards Saint Stephen’s Bridge, locally called Viaduct.
The original site was to be the right end of the lest lower lookout balcony at the far end of Veszprém castle.
Another earlier idea was to have the girl seated on the back of a standing lion, leaning forward and embracing its neck. The site at that stage was already the bridge’s end where the sculpture is now placed.
Details
Materials: the figure of the girl is cast in bronze, the lion is carved in limestone from the Tardos quarry. Dimensions: length: 36 cm, width: 17 cm, height: 25 cm. It weighs 18.1 kg.
