From China, the country who gave us melamine-laced pet food, which killed thousands of dogs and cats in the US, while Chinese children are currently being sickened by melamine “enriched” milk, come recent photos of lions and tigers riding horses in a circus show at Xiamen, in southeast China’s Fujian province. The shows are being held during a week-long holiday to mark China’s National Day, the 59th anniversary of the founding of Communist China.

The images bring to mind a series of paintings by 18th century British artist George Stubbs, who was renowned for his equine portraits. Each work depicts the primal terror of a horse being attacked by a lion.

The theme is one that appeared as early as the 9th century BC on Etruscan tombs, and can be seen throughout the history of European and Middle Eastern art, where the horse is regarded as a noble creature, similar to man in sensibility, while the lion symbolizes the brutal forces of nature.

It has been suggested that the inspiration for Stubbs’ pieces came during a trip to Morocco in 1754, when he witnessed a lion stalk and attack a  horse. During the same period, he also visited Rome, where he likely would have seen Renaissance artists’ renderings of the same theme, as well as a famous marble sculpture dating from the 3rd century BC.