Li Tore, Bronze sculpture at Terrasses d'Avroy, Liège, Belgium
Li Tore is a bronze sculpture at the Terrasses d'Avroy that depicts a man taming a bull. The detailed craftsmanship captures the tension and strength expressed through the interaction between human and animal.
Léon Mignon's Le Dompteur de taureau won the gold medal at the 1880 Paris Salon; the City of Liège bought it and installed it at the Terrasses d'Avroy on 27 June 1881. During World War II students hid it in the cellars of the Académie des beaux-arts so it would not be melted down by the Reich. In 1947 they symbolically canonised it, founding the Saint-Torè.
Students made the bull their mascot after the nude tamer caused a scandal in the Catholic press; Joseph Demarteau, editor of the Gazette de Liège, was mocked when they named the tamer Joseph. Each year they repaint the bull's testicles in the colours of the faculty of the AGEL president, and the Saint-Toré parade is held in the third week of March.
Li Tore stands at the corner of the Pont Albert Ier and the Avenue Rogier, on the Terrasses d'Avroy beside the Parc d'Avroy in central Liège. It faces the Bœuf au repos by the same sculptor, so the two bronzes are seen together. The group sits on a rough bronze base at street level, visible from the bridge and the avenue.
The bull's testicles are repainted each year in the colours of the faculty of the sitting president of AGEL, the General Association of Liège Students. A cast of the same statue also stands at the zoo in Lubumbashi, in Katanga, whose university was long sponsored by that of Liège.
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