''Lady Tholose'' (french: Dame Tholose) is the name given to a bronze sculpture from the Toulouse Renaissance, a work by the sculptor Jean Rancy and the bronze caster Claude Peilhot. Under the features of the goddess Pallas Athena, it is an

allegory As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

of the city of

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

A Renaissance bronze

A masterpiece by Jean Rancy

Demonstrating a remarkable aesthetic and technical mastery for his time, Jean Rancy produced a work that constitutes an essential milestone in French Renaissance sculpture. The fact is all the more noteworthy that it is an extremely rare example of a large bronze figure being cast outside the French royal workshops in the 16th century."Dame Tholose - statue"
notice of the Musée des Augustins de Toulouse (text by Pascal Julien). ''Lady Tholose'' is distinguished by the mastery of the wet drapery, the science of gestures, torsions and multiple points of vision that Jean Rancy demonstrated early on. If the face with its regular features and wavy hair correspond to the classical canons, the work stands out by its dynamism: camped on a single support, its movement is accompanied by the flight of sinuous and strongly hollowed folds. Its bare bosom and a short antique dress plated by the wind on the generous forms of its body emphasize its feminine sensuality. Made more than 15 years before

Giambologna Giambologna (1529 – 13 August 1608), also known as Jean de Boulogne (French), Jehan Boulongne (Flemish) and Giovanni da Bologna (Italian), was the last significant Italian Renaissance sculptor, with a large workshop producing large and small ...

's ''Flying Mercury'', ''Lady Tholose'' is characterized for its technical and aesthetic ambition. Toulouse - Dame Tholose - détail 02.jpg, Low angle view Dame Tholose et Mercure volant.jpg, ''Lady Tholose'' and a 1624 Toulouse copy of Giambologna's ''Mercury'' (1563)

History and tribulations

In 1529, the "image carver" Jean Rancy sculpted a wooden statue of a child representing St. Michael, which was gilded and then placed on the roof of the city's Archives Tower (now called the "''Capitole'' Keep") to serve as a weathervane.Bruno Tollon and Louis Peyrusse
"Dame Tholose and the Dupuy Column"
''Mémoires de la Société Archéologique du Midi de la France'', t. LXV (2005). In 1544, this child figure was so damaged that the '' capitouls'' commissioned the same Jean Rancy for another statue: Lady Tholose. If the wooden model was made as early as 1544 by Rancy, for lack of money it was not until 1550 that the gunner Claude Peilhot proceeded to cast the bronze in the forges of the city's arsenal. Gilded with gold leaf and placed atop the Archives Tower, a symbolic place of the ''capitouls power, Lady Tholose brandished a weathervane with its right arm and remained in place until 1829. At that time the roof of the tower was in danger of collapse and the statue had to be removed. In 1834 it was endowed with wings and crowns and, thus transformed into "Victory" or "Renown", was installed at the top of the colonne Dupuy to pay homage to the military successes of

Dominique Martin Dupuy Dominique Martin Dupuy (1767 – 21 October 1798) was a French revolutionary brigadier general. The son of a baker from Toulouse, he engaged in the ''Régiment d'Artois'' before the French Revolution. In 1791, he was volunteer in the 1st battali ...

, a Napoleon's general born in Toulouse. As it rusted, the iron shaft that attached the statue to the column was the cause of the corrosion of its legs. In 2005 it was replaced on the column by a copy. Restored, it became part of the collections of the

Musée des Augustins The Musée des Augustins de Toulouse is a fine arts museum in Toulouse, France which conserves a collection of sculpture and paintings from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. The paintings are from throughout France, the sculptures represe ...

of Toulouse, where it is displayed nowadays. In 2008 and 2009 it was one of the major pieces in the exhibition "Cast in Bronze: French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution" held successively in Paris, New York and Los Angeles.Didier Rykner
"French Bronzes from the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment"
''La tribune de l'art'', January 4, 2009. Toulouse donjon du Capitole.jpg, From 1550 to 1829, ''Lady Tholose'' stood at the top of the ''Capitole'' Keep. Colonne a Dupuy Toulouse.jpg, In 1834 the statue was installed at the top of the Dupuy column. Toulouse - Colonne Dupuy - 3.jpg, In 2005 it was replaced on the Dupuy column by a copy. Toulouse - Dame Tholose - Bronze Renaissance.jpg, The original is now on display at the

of Toulouse.

An allegory with a political purpose

Beyond its artistic aspect, ''Lady Tholose'' is also distinguished by the political purpose behind its creation.

A symbol of the affirmation of the power of the capitouls against the royal institutions

The '' capitouls'', the city's consuls who commissioned the work, had imagined Lady Tholose as an allegory to represent the city and the values that ensured its cohesion around the municipal magistrates. It was a question of affirming the power and seniority of the municipal institution as well as its legitimacy in defending the municipal freedoms and privileges conquered in previous centuries, while the royal power and the

Parliament of Toulouse The Parliament of Toulouse (french: Parlement de Toulouse) was one of the ''parlements'' of the Kingdom of France, established in the city of Toulouse. It was modelled on the Parliament of Paris. It was first created in 1420, but definitely estab ...

were exerting strong pressure to call them into question.Bruno Tollon
"Lady Tholose, a political allegory of the Renaissance"
''Mémoires de la Société archéologique du Midi de la France'', tome LIX (1999). The choice of Lady Tholose to embody this allegory was significant: bronze as a material and especially the figure of the goddess

Pallas Pallas may refer to: Astronomy * 2 Pallas asteroid ** Pallas family, a group of asteroids that includes 2 Pallas * Pallas (crater), a crater on Earth's moon Mythology * Pallas (Giant), a son of Uranus and Gaia, killed and flayed by Athena * Pall ...

(Minerva) as a model referred to Roman antiquity and more particularly to the ''Palladia Tolosa'' (Palladian Toulouse) evoked by the Latin poets

Martial Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman poet from Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of ''Epigrams'', published in Rome between AD 86 and ...

Ausonius Decimius Magnus Ausonius (; – c. 395) was a Roman poet and teacher of rhetoric from Burdigala in Aquitaine, modern Bordeaux, France. For a time he was tutor to the future emperor Gratian, who afterwards bestowed the consulship on him. H ...

and

Sidonius Apollinaris Gaius Sollius Modestus Apollinaris Sidonius, better known as Sidonius Apollinaris (5 November of an unknown year, 430 – 481/490 AD), was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius is "the single most important surviving author from 5th-century Gaul ...

, the ancient Toulouse that the emperor

Domitian Domitian (; la, Domitianus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavi ...

had placed under the patronage of Pallas in the first century AD.Jean-Marie Pailler
"Domitian and the 'City of Pallas', a turning point in the history of ancient Toulouse"
In the Renaissance, such an affirmation of municipal power and its personification under the features of an ancient goddess seem unprecedented. As early as 1534, the Municipal annals showed a first manifestation of this: the city is represented by the face of a young woman in the center of a medallion, next to the inscription "LIBERA THOLOSA". The dynamic humanist milieu of Toulouse was certainly at the origin of this evolution, which saw the capitouls abandon the traditional religious images in favor of a pagan figure with historical implications. For the jurisconsult and poet Jean de Boyssoné or the historiographers Nicolas Bertrand,

Guillaume de La Perrière Guillaume de La Perrière (1499/1503 in Toulouse – 1565) was one of the earliest French writers of emblem books. His work is often associated with the French Renaissance. La Perrière chronicled events in his home city of Toulouse. His best ...

and Antoine Noguier, mastery of history was the best asset of political power and they put their know-how at the service of municipal ambitions. Thus, the capitouls presented themselves as " decurions" sitting in a "Capitol", a formula that linked them directly to the city's Roman past and allowed them to claim a continuity of municipal privileges since the emperor

Theodosius Theodosius ( Latinized from the Greek "Θεοδόσιος", Theodosios, "given by god") is a given name. It may take the form Teodósio, Teodosie, Teodosije etc. Theodosia is a feminine version of the name. Emperors of ancient Rome and Byzantium ...

(although the municipal body was only created in 1147), i.e., an allegedly more ancient and venerable antiquity than that of the Crown of France.Géraldine Cazals
"The constitution of an urban memory in Toulouse (1515-1556)"
2002. The statue held a weather vane in its right hand and leaned with its left hand on a shield (now disappeared) with the arms of the city. On the shield were inscribed the letters ''CPQT MDL'', that is to say ''Capitulum Populusque Tolosanum 1550'' to, in the manner of the Roman ''SPQR'', refer to the capitolate and the people of Toulouse.

An allegorical figure declined on other supports

The name and symbolism of Lady Tholose have been used on other media depicting allegories of Toulouse. Depending on the chroniclers and historians, the same representation could be presented sometimes as Pallas and sometimes as Lady Tholose. If conceptually Pallas could be considered as a simple protector or inspirer of Toulouse, while Lady Tholose would be the representation of the city itself, a certain confusion exists between the various publications and it might seem vain, in the context of Toulouse, to always try to differentiate the goddess from the allegory of the city that she inspired. Toulouse - Dame Thlose dans les Annales de 1534.jpg, Annals of the City of Toulouse of 1534, representation in medallion Portebachelier-01(1).jpg, This sculpture by

Nicolas Bachelier Nicolas Bachelier (1485–1557) was a French surveyor, architect, and sculptor who particularly worked in Toulouse. Bachelier is famous in Toulouse for having been the architect, proven or presumed, of several '' hôtels particuliers'' of the Ren ...

on a drawing by Jean Rancy (eastern portal of the Henri IV courtyard of the '' Capitole'', 1546) evokes Lady Tholose and/or Pallas. It is shown with a lamb (element of the Toulouse coat of arms), whereas an owl was originally at the end of the staff which now bears an Occitan cross. Augustins - La Providence, l'Honneur et la Vigilance - Jacques Boulbène RO30.jpg, In the painting ''Providence, Honor and Vigilance'', the painter Jacques Boulbène glorifies the moral virtues of the capitouls (1595) and chooses Pallas to embody Providence (identifiable by its owl). Liber Tolosae image.jpg, Mark of the Toulouse printer Raymond Colomiès (1612). Toulouse - Annales Lafaille 1687 - Illustration.jpg, Annals of the city of Toulouse by Germain Lafaille (1687). Toulouse-Capitole-Cour Henri IV (6).jpg, On the western portal of the Henri IV courtyard of the Toulouse ''Capitole'', two sculpted figures embody Lady Tholose / Pallas (1678). Toulouse - Pallas et chouette.jpg, In the courtyard of a private mansion in Toulouse, representation of Pallas and the owl which is her attribute (18th century). Capitole_Toulouse_-_Salle_des_Illustres_-_Minerve_veillant_sur_Toulouse_-_Casimir_Destrem_1898.jpg, ''Minerva watching over Toulouse'', Salle des Illustres du Capitole (1898).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lady Tholose 16th-century sculptures Bronze sculptures in France Statues in France Sculptures of women in France Sculptures of Athena