THE SUCCESSIVE STATUES OF PLACE DES VOSGES

FROM AUTHORITY'S SYMBOL TO A WORK THAT A TREE TRUNK HOLDS UP   

Prime Minister Richelieu's last gift to Louis XIII was the equestrian statue that appeared in place Royale thirty years after it was built. 

(In 1643) 

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• Made of bronze, it was melted down for cannons during the Revolution as were the statues of the four other places (in August 1792):

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 Place des Victoires

          The National Guard Leaves for the Army by Leon Cogniet, 1836 / zoom

The revolutionary tricolor replaces the pont Neuf statue (in September 1792).

 The arm outstretched in command of Louis XV's statue

place de la Concorde, 

is the only element that stayed intact when the statue was toppled.  

When the Bastille was taken it was given a prisoner,

whom that king had left there 40 years before.

-- Ninety-three by Victor Hugo, ed.1979, p. 153

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The copy we see was made during the Restoration:* A tree trunk keeps the horse from falling over.

*A constitutional monarchy that nobles dominate (in 1815-30)

Louis XIII by Jean-Pierre Cortot, 1820's

The challenge of equestrian statues: The horse must raise a hoof

and not fall down.

•  Jean-Pierre Cortot's works are conventional but competent. This one adorns the Arc de Triomphe:

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• The regime had spent most of its budget on the statue for pont Neuf, and Cortot was obliged to use stone instead of bronze. The heavier weight made the work more difficult (a work in bronze is made from a mold whose inside is empty).  

 -- Philippe Schmitt-Kummerlee, Carnavalet Museum, personal communication

• A government that offered only "masses and masked balls" (George Sand) to a public used to immense victories or massive defeats, soon seemed boring. Cortot could have insisted that adequate funds be granted, or have refused the commission: The tree trunk suggests that he shared the public's indifference, and only took the job for pay.    

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Louis XVIII said of his relationship with the French, "I am like a woman who is not very attractive, whom reason forces one to love."

-- Madame Royale by André Castelot, 1962 (in French)

The statue suggests a "pale monarchy"
for which the king himself 

does not seek the means for a satisfactory image,

while the vigor of the original work

shows the start of monarchy's Golden Age.

-- "Pale monarchy:"

  René Chateaubriand, royalist writer,

 Memories from beyond the grave (« Mémoires d'outre tomb »), 1848

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