The Bear and the Gardener in this case keeping the flies off a friend, and the ultimate good of safeguarding his welfare. The story gained currency in England from the 18th century on through translations or imitations of La Fontaine. One of its earliest appearances was in Robert Dodsley's "Select fables of Esop and other fabulists" (1764), where it is given the title "The Hermit and the Bear" and a milder ending. In this version a hermit has done the bear a good turn; later still this was identified with taking a thorn from its paw, drawing on the story of Androcles and the Lion.
Portrait of a Gentleman with a Lion Paw also been suggested that the lion's paw has masonic significance. Portrait of a Gentleman with a Lion Paw The Portrait of a Gentleman with a Lion Paw is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance painter Lorenzo Lotto, dating c. 1527. It is housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. The work's history can be traced from 1679, when it was listed in the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria. Neither the identity of the sitter nor the date the portrait was painted is known, although the work has been assigned to Lotto's early Venetian period, when he carried