DETOUR: THE VIOLENT IMAGERY OF VICTORS ON HORSEBACK

ART THAT GLORIFIES WAR BEGAN WITH EQUESTRIAN  KINGS 

On the arch that dominated the Saint-Denis gate an exhausted lion evokes the defeat of the Habsbourg monarchy* and shows Louis XIV slaying the defeated: 

*The lion appears on its coat of arms.

The sculpture commemorates what was considered an exploit of Louis's army in 1674, the famous "Crossing of the Rhine." It was the prelude to two decades of massacres by the French armies in western Germany and to the French-German enmity that endured until the Cold War: Fuller explanation here.

 Same idea:

        The Battle of Poltava [in 1709], mosaic of M. Lomonosov,  Moscow Academy of Science, 2009 / zoom

La Bataille de Rocroy [en 1643]. Le duc d'Enghien salue le cadavre du comte de Fontaine par Maurice Leloir, 1931

          Napoleon at Eylau [in 1643] by Jean Gros, 1807-1808, Louvre / zoom

     Napoleon III Orders the Launch of the Imperial Guard at the Battle of Solferino [in 1859] by Adolphe Yvon 1861 / zoom

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The Commander-in-Chief of the Allied armies of World War I looks over the splendid perspective that leads to the Eiffel Tower.

It changes the subject from the carnage of that war, which provoked the 20th centuries' catastrophes:

Maréchal Foch by Raymond Martin and Robert Wlérick / Internet, photographer not named 

The arrow leads to the Eiffel Tower.

But de Gaulle is always on foot. 

In front of the Grand Palais

Because his generation of officers no longer rode horses? Because of his height, long legs and long paces? Because the film of his march down the Champs-Elysées at the Liberation is so famous? Or to set him apart? 

Whatever the reason, 

de Gaulle is always shown striding,

an image that coincides with peace in Europe.

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Next,

Detour: heroes on white horses