Lion of Saint Marc

This is the second piece of a pic serie based on all historical and mythical lions of the european history, in their own character, sybolism and details :3 This is the order of pics I'll draw:

1. Lion of Perugia ( [link] )
2. Lion of Saint Marc
3. Lion of Judah
4. Dutch Lion of Netherlands
5. Dying Lion of Lucern

- Lion of Saint Marc
I think whoever study art history will recognise him. The lion of Saint Marc, ancient protector of Venice, symbol of the saint. The legend says that in his throat there's the Goblet of Oceans, a magical object that always protect venice and her sons from the dangers from the sea.

For this one of Mythical lion I hava had spent a lot of time researching an appropriate reference example to draw, 'cuz I live very close to Venice, so I really love this lion and character. But wherever I look there's always the same white marble bas-relief rest of Venice's long history, always in the same pose with his book ( [link] )... too frontal and far away from my art tastes to be drawn.
But a few days ago I've been visiting Frari's Church (biggest church of Venice after Saint Marc) by myself, when I see him...

[link]

He's simply... Awesome.
Is one of marble statues on Antonio Canova's tomb, he was one of the greatet Italian sculptor during the neoclassicism, the gratest and the last one I have to say... I've spent 20 minutes watching him, then was clear that I was going to draw him down xD
To color this one I really "painted" it all just as I'm using real brushes, only in this way I can catch every detail and model the light, as Tintoretto did.
I'm really satisfied abou the result :3 looks like some Mannierism oil paint