Androcles there a story told by Apion in his lost work "Aegyptiacorum" (Wonders of Egypt), the events of which Apion claimed to have personally witnessed in Rome. In this version, Androclus (going by the Latin variation of the name), is a runaway slave of a former Roman consul administering a part of Africa. He takes shelter in a cave, which turns out to be the den of a wounded lion, from whose paw he removes a large thorn. In gratitude, the lion becomes tame towards him and henceforward shares his catch with the slave. After three years, Androclus craves a return
Portrait of a Gentleman with a Lion Paw gentleman wearing a rich, fur-lined black coat. He stands in front of a rich red and a green textile background and shows us a gilt lion's paw. His right hand, in a gesture typical of Lotto, touches his heart, showing two valuable rings. The composition and the colors show the influence of Titian, then the most respected painter in Venice. The symbolic meaning of the lion's paw is not clear. It could be an allusion to the subject's name, perhaps Leonino Brambati of Bergamo, or a member of the Venetian Zatta family (zatta, in Venetian dialect, means "paw"). It has