“Sphinx” by Norman Lindsay

“Sphinx” by Norman Lindsay dates from the late 1940s and can be found at the Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum Gardens. On the track down to the swimming pool, there are two figures which guard the entrance to the northern side of the property. One of the figures is a bronze Sphinx, and opposite the Sphinx is a cement figure a Satyress. This Sphinx is a bronze copy of the original cement work, which is located in the museum.

The Sphinx is one of many sculptures in the garden of the Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum. Norman Lindsay made all of concrete on a metal frame. In the 1980s, many of the concrete sculptures were copied to protect them from environmental and physical damage. The copies were made of bronze, and the original works were moved inside the gallery. Lindsay did not give the sculptures formal names, so the titles are merely descriptive.

A sphinx is a mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion. In Greek tradition, it has the head of a human, the haunches of a lion, and sometimes the wings of a bird. Unlike the Greek sphinx, which was a woman, the Egyptian sphinx is typically shown as a man. In both traditions, sphinxes were thought of as guardians often flanking the entrances to temples. In European decorative art, the sphinx enjoyed a significant revival during the Renaissance. Sphinxes depictions are generally associated with architectural structures such as royal tombs or religious temples. The sphinx image also has been adopted into Masonic architecture.