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Joan of Arc listening to her voices
François RUDE.
Under the canopy of the Richelieu wing, trees and marbles grow. Among the nymphs, lions and horses, a Joan of Arc hides in a corner. An angelic air of the Middle Ages in conversation with the sky. That which was the toy of its king Charles VII to expel the English out of France, will be carved 4 centuries later to become the mascot of another king: Louis-Philippe. After many revolutions, the latter orders a Jeanne to decorate the Luxembourg garden and show the Parisians that they share a common history. Today, the symbolic offers a more obscure variant.
Commissioned in 1845 for the series of Illustrious Women of the Garden of Luxembourg, exhibited at the Salon of 1852. According to her own testimony, Jeanne, at 13, heard the call of Saint Michael, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret who ordered him to go to deliver France from the English.
François Rude is a French sculptor, representative of the transition between neoclassicism and romanticism, of which he is one of the masters.
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He orders statues by the hundreds to decorate parks and streets in order to gather the French around a common heritage. Jeanne has to decorate the Luxembourg garden with other famous women from the history of France: Anne of Austria, Louise of Savoy, Marie de Medici ... At that time, History becomes a discipline where we make icons and we choose moments that will fill the history books. France becomes a woman in topless on the barricades. Jeanne is also part of the communication plan but she remains in armor.