The lavishly painted and decorated cages that line this museum once held powerful circus animals, such as lions and tigers. My photograph stresses a carved, toga-clad wooden figure dominating a corner of one of those cages and symbolizing classical history. The statue, and indeed the entire cage, is painted gold, the color of wealth. Spectators were once expected to stand awestruck before this splendid work of man, while the animals – a product of the natural world – were destined to pace nervously back and forth within the confines of the iron bars that fill much of the frame. No matter how ornate the cage might be, and how benign the purpose of a pleasurable circus, I intend this image to express man’s cruel dominance over the most impressive creatures of nature, even when they may be packaged in a gilded cage adorned with tasteful allegorical figures.