New Year’s gift-prize is attached 🙂  (see below)

The coming year, as we are accustomed to the Chinese calendar, is considered the year of the dog. The project www.mascaron.org  would like to correspond to the «trend», but so far it has not been possible to find a dog among the photos of the facade decoration loaded into the project  data base. Therefore, the dress of Santa Claus tried on today a lion, but what!

In the next 2019 he will be 110 years old! In 1909 a monument to Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was erected on the Arbat Square at the very beginning of Gogol Boulevard (http://mascaron.org/?pid=2132) under the project of sculptor Nikolai Andreev. Now this monument is Gogol, «who is siting» (remember: «who will plant him, he is a monument” 🙂 . Here is a “play” of two Russian words arrest and plant / sit )  — moved to the yard of house 7 on Nikitsky Boulevard (Gogol House Museum). But his native «environment» — four lanterns, the bases of which is decorated  by  lions,  remained in their rightful place. But by themselves these lions are very noteworthy for lovers of history and architecture of Moscow.

Look at the more «noticeable» lions that, like Pushkin wrote in Eugene Onegin «… .and the lions on the gate.» Yes, yes those same lions from the pylons of the gates of the English Club (it is the house of Kheraskov, it is the house of Count Razumovsky) on Tverskaya Street! Here it is, the lion «on the gate» what — http://mascaron.org/?pid=2135
Is not it true, at least in the muzzles of both specimens the related traits are clearly visible. Drawing manes and «fringe» on the paws further strengthens the thought of these their kinship ties. Despite the fact that Andreev laid down his lions at the base of the lanterns, he did not hide that the prototype was the lions «Le comte Leon» — the lion-graph, as they called Leo Kirillovich Razumovsky.

Surprisingly, in Moscow there is still an ode to a pair of lions — almost an exact copy of those that «on the gate.»

Attention — the first person to find this copy will receive the Prize — any photos from www.mascaron.org  will be printed in A3 format. Send the address of the lion you searched for either in the comments to this post on the FB page, or by writing directly on the website — option «mail». (enter your email address)

PS. But there are a few more lions from the house of Razumovsky on Tverskaya Street, and their copies, of which even the owners of the originals had no idea until recently. 🙂