Gloria, winged and armoured, carries a young dying warrior, lifting him to the heavens, towards Fame and Immortality. Balancing on the tip of one foot, the allegorical figure stands upright, wings outstretched, ready for flight. The title which Antonin Mercié gives to this work is intriguing: Gloria Victis (glory to the vanquished). This is a reversal of the famous phrase, Vae Victis (death to the vanquished), which the Gallic general Brennus, in 390 BC, supposedly exclaimed to the Romans he had just defeated. Created in 1872, a year after the defeat of the French soldiers by the Prussian army, the statue personifies France vanquished but heroic: vulnerable in his nudity, head bowed, eyes half closed, arms outstretched, the soldier of Liberty, a hero without glory, evokes the figure of Christ taken down from the Cross. The bandage on his forehead and the broken-bladed sword he holds in his fist symbolise defeat.

Winner of the Prix de Rome in 1868, Antonin Mercié was at the Villa Medici when war broke out. In autumn 1870, at the beginning of the conflict, he modelled a sketch representing Gloria supporting a triumphant soldier. When France’s defeat was announced, he amended his original project. Completed during the summer of 1872, Gloria Victis is the last piece executed by the sculptor at the French Academy in Rome. The original plaster work was exhibited, on a tall pedestal, under the loggia of the Villa Medici, before being sent to France the following year. The work of the young artist in residence bears the hallmark of his academic training, as illustrated by the perfection and refined elegance of the bodies, evoking the Florentine Renaissance and the art of a Benvenuto Cellini. Likewise, the powerful thrusting movement of capture recalls Giambologna’s Abduction of a Sabine Woman (Florence, Loggia dei Lanzi), and the position of Gloria is inspired by Raphael's Saint Michael Vanquishing Satan (Louvre Museum).

Rodin, La Défense, S. 1301After spending five years in Italy, Mercié returned to Paris in 1874 and exhibited the plaster original of this Glory to the Vanquished at the Salon. It was a dazzling success. “This first monument in our consolation by art”, according to the wonderful phrase of the critic Gustave Larroumet, crystallised the emotions of the vanquished, heightened the patriotism of the suffering people, and eased the trauma of the humiliating defeat. The work received the Grand Medal of Honour and was immediately acquired by the City of Paris. At the Salon of 1875, the bronze cast by Thiébaut & fils created a new chorus of praise, consecrating the young artist at the age of just 29. In 1879, the statue was temporarily placed on Square Montholon, before being installed in 1884 in the central courtyard of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, where it remained on display until 1930.

After this initial achievement, Mercié amassed further awards and honours, but remains today a single-work artist. A work whose success can still be measured by the number of engravings, prints, miniatures and references to which it gives rise. Many monuments to those who died in the War of 1870, in places such as Niort, Bordeaux, Agen, Cholet and Châlon-sur-Marne, are adorned with a replica of Mercié’s statue, and reproductions of it can be found as far away as Copenhagen and Washington. It also inspired many artists, including Auguste Rodin in his project for La Défense de Paris.

H. D.

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