The snarling snout and penetrating eyes apparently made an impression on the English painter John William Waterhouse (1849-1917). 
His 1887 painting "Mariamne" has a lion sculpture that seems to be influenced by the Nimrud lion. 
the same Assyrian lion (and painting Waterhouse himself) must have influenced Edward John Poynter (1836-1919), who used lions design similar to flank the royal staircase in his painting "the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, '180. -----
I read about it in trying to Elizabeth Prettejohn in" JW Waterhouse: the modern PreRaphaelite "
