The Meissen porcelain painter Detlef Ritter first travelled to Africa in 1994. Inspired by Africa's intoxicating chromatic splendour, in 2019 the artist commenced work on his "Animals of Africa" series of wall pictures, creating a form of decoration never before seen at the Manufactory. This "Lion" forms a pair with the "Wild Elephants" wall picture. The exceedingly lifelike rendition of the scene allows the observer to veritably sense both the lion's majestic poise and the heat that lies over the seemingly endless landscape.The year before, Meissen animal statuary, too, was devoted to African wildlife in the form of a hand-modelled "Big Five" group of figures that likewise included a lion.