Vatican stories 2

In previous post I wrote how we can get to the St. Peter's Square. Now let's enter the Basilica. There are a lot of special monuments, sculptures and paintings worth seeing. But today I would like to present you only one of them.

In the end of the right nave of the basilica there is a tomb of the pope Clement XIII made by famous sculptor of Neoclassicism - Antonio Canova.

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The tomb wouldn't have anything special if.......

Usually all of the maestros had a team of collaborators who worked in shadow of their bosses.  Also Canova had his team. One of his assistants was really upset and disappointed because of the fact that only the "main sculptor" (in this case Canova) would be remembered for ages. The man had a particular surname - Elephant. He was responsible for making the lion. He wanted to write his name on his piece of work or left any special signature. He decided to beg Canova for a permission and he achieved his goal. Mr. Elephant left his signature in the back part of the animal.He made a rump of an elephant :) Let's take a look:

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I suppose it's one of the most original signatures in the world!