Statues - Hither & Thither |
Site Search:
|
|
Châlons-en-Champagne
Marne Champagne-Ardenne Place de la Libération |
Gloria Victis"Glory to the vanquished" |
Antonin Mercié
1874 (1892) |
A winged female allegorical image of Fame (or of Hope) carries to glory a dying French hero, his broken sword a sign of defeat. Mercié's original plaster sculpture won a medal at the 1874 Paris Salon. Bronze copies were cast in different sizes by the great foundry of Ferdinand Barbedienne.
Mercié designed this sculpture following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. He intended to honor those French soldiers who had fallen in the conflict, especially his friend, the artist Henri Regnault (1843-1871). Upon France's defeat, Mercié changed the hero's head from lifted to fallen.
Many casts, with different finishes, exist of the group. There are several copies of this statue in various towns and collecties. The Châlons copy is copy of the one in a courtyard of the Paris town hall and was acquired in 1890 by the Châlons-en-Champagne council and placed near the museuk in 1892.
|
GLORIA VICTIS DON de J. CHEVALIER propriete du musee de chalons |
Your banner here? Click for information.