According to an iconography already used in paintings dedicated to the leopard, a lion chasing a herd of gazelles, which flee far away in the background on the left, is attacked by a snake. The king of the forest, the ferocious predator, thus becomes the prey in turn and engages in a fight to the death with an uncertain outcome. A human skeleton covered in insects and a large spider connote the work in an even more mournful sense. Ligabue loves to deal with the theme of the struggle for survival that involves all living beings without distinction.