Desjardins statue Louis XIV pl des Victoires

The Louis XIV Victory Monument was an elaborate trophy memorial celebrating the military and domestic successes of the early decades of

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

's personal rule, primarily those during the

Franco-Dutch War The Franco-Dutch War, 1672 to 1678, was primarily fought by Kingdom of France, France and the Dutch Republic, with both sides backed at different times by a variety of allies. Related conflicts include the 1672 to 1674 Third Anglo-Dutch War and ...

of 1672–1678, on the

Place des Victoires The Place des Victoires (; English: Victory Square, 'Square of Victories') is a circular Town square, square in central Paris, located a short distance northeast of the Palais-Royal and straddling the border between the 1st arrondissement of Pari ...

(Victories' Square) in central Paris. It was designed and sculpted by

Martin Desjardins Martin Desjardins, born Martin van den Bogaert (1637 – 2 May 1694) was a French sculptor and stuccoist of Dutch birth. He was born at Breda, the son of a milliner in a house that would later carry the name 'de Drye Bredasche Hoeden' ("the Thr ...

between 1682 and 1686 on a commission by François d'Aubusson, Duke of La Feuillade. The monument's centerpiece, a colossal statue of Louis XIV crowned by an allegory of victory, was destroyed in 1792 during the French Revolution. Significant other parts of the monument have been preserved and are now mostly kept at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

. Together with the two triumphal arches, the

Porte Saint-Denis The Porte Saint-Denis (; ) is a Parisian monument located in the 10th arrondissement, at the site of one of the gates of the Wall of Charles V, one of Paris's former city walls. It is located at the crossing of the Rue Saint-Denis continued by ...

(1672) and

Porte Saint-Martin The Porte Saint-Martin (, ''St. Martin Gate'') is a Parisian monument located at the site of one of the gates of the now-destroyed fortifications of Paris. It is located at the crossing of the Rue Saint-Martin, the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin an ...

(1674), and echoing the

Hall of Mirrors The Hall of Mirrors () is a grand Baroque architecture, Baroque style gallery and one of the most emblematic rooms in the royal Palace of Versailles near Paris, France. The grandiose ensemble of the hall and its adjoining salons was intended to ...

in the

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

(decorated 1680–1684), the Victory Monument marked the high point of public exaltation of Louis XIV's military glory and European dominance in the urban landscape of Paris, before the setbacks and exhaustion that would come later in his reign with the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War was a European great power conflict from 1688 to 1697 between Kingdom of France, France and the Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg), Grand Alliance. Although largely concentrated in Europe, fighting spread to colonial poss ...

and

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish E ...

Background

Prominent courtier François III d'Aubusson, Duke of La Feuillade planned the Place des Victoires as both a property development project and a celebration of Louis XIV following the

Treaties of Nijmegen The Treaties or Peace of Nijmegen (; ; ) were a series of treaties signed in the Dutch city of Nijmegen between August 1678 and October 1679. The treaties ended various interconnected wars among France, the Dutch Republic, Spain, Brandenburg, Sw ...

, which in the late 1670s had put an end to his previous career as a military leader. He formed the plan in 1681 and purchased part of the grounds in 1684, the rest being acquired for the same purpose by the City of Paris. While not much is known about the details of the planning process, it is probable that Louis XIV's entourage, if not the king itself, was involved in the definition of its program of monarchical glorification, so that the monument eventually appears as a hybrid of private initiative and official project. The iconographic program echoes that of the ceiling of the

in Versailles and includes several of the same episodes, even though the depictions on the Victory Monument make less systematic use of allegory. La Feuillade had previously ordered a marble statue of Louis XIV from Desjardins in 1679. He offered it to the king in 1683 and it was placed in the

Versailles Orangerie The Versailles Orangerie () was built by Jules Hardouin-Mansart between 1684 and 1686, before work on the Château de Versailles had even begun. The Orangerie, which replaced Louis Le Vau's earlier design from 1663, is an example of many such pre ...

in 1684, where it remains to this day after having been altered during the Revolution and subsequently restored by in 1815–1816. That statue served as an inspiration for that on the Victory Monument, even though the king's attire differs: ancient Roman in Versailles, versus coronation garb in Paris. La Feuillade commissioned Desjardins to create the victory monument in 1682. The monument was completed and inaugurated on , even as the surrounding buildings were unfinished or not started yet.

Description

Monument proper

At the center of the square, the monument itself stood and consisted of three sections: a base with larger-than-life bronze statues of prisoners and military spoils; a square pedestal with four bronze reliefs commemorating specific events; and a colossal gilded statue of Louis XIV in coronation robe, trampling on

Cerberus In Greek mythology, Cerberus ( or ; ''Kérberos'' ), often referred to as the hound of Hades, is a polycephaly, multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Greek underworld, underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. He was the offspring o ...

, with an

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

Victory The term victory (from ) originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal duel, combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitutes a strategic vi ...

standing behind him on a globe and holding a

laurel wreath A laurel wreath is a symbol of triumph, a wreath (attire), wreath made of connected branches and leaves of the bay laurel (), an aromatic broadleaf evergreen. It was also later made from spineless butcher's broom (''Ruscus hypoglossum'') or cher ...

above his head. The statue was more than four meters high, and the entire monument's total height was about 12 meters. The monument included numerous celebratory inscriptions, including a main dedicace in Latin on the front which read ("To the Immortal Man"), an unambiguous reference to Louis. Each of the four prisoners simultaneously evoked an age of life and a specific emotion, and was also widely understood to refer to a vanquished nation: youth / hope /

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

; adulthood / rebellion /

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...

; middle age / grief /

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

; and old age / despondency / the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

. The link with European states, however, was not made entirely explicit. Three of the figures were easy to identify as they represented France's main adversaries of the time, but the fourth one, now understood as representing Brandenburg, has been misinterpreted variously in the past as the

Duchy of Savoy The Duchy of Savoy (; ) was a territorial entity of the Savoyard state that existed from 1416 until 1847 and was a possession of the House of Savoy. It was created when Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, raised the County of Savoy into a duchy f ...

or the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. Between them were scattered broken weapons and military emblems, including an imperial ensign that anachronistically combines the

SPQR SPQR or S.P.Q.R., an initialism for (; ), is an emblematic phrase referring to the government of the Roman Republic. It appears on documents made public by an inscription in stone or metal, in dedications of monuments and public works, and on ...

motto of Ancient Rome with the

double-headed eagle The double-headed eagle is an Iconology, iconographic symbol originating in the Bronze Age. The earliest predecessors of the symbol can be found in Mycenaean Greece and in the Ancient Near East, especially in Mesopotamian and Hittite Empire#icon ...

of the

. Desjardins's relief plates on the pedestal commemorated four events viewed as particularly representative of Louis XIV's glory: on the front, an allegory of the

Peace of Nijmegen The Treaties or Peace of Nijmegen (; ; ) were a series of treaty, treaties signed in the Dutch Republic, Dutch city of Nijmegen between August 1678 and October 1679. The treaties ended various interconnected wars among France, the Dutch Republic, ...

of 1678–1679, with Louis XIV bringing Peace to Europe, the latter two represented as female allegories; on the rear, an idealized depiction of Louis XIV accepting the excuses of Spain's ambassador on , a noted episode in the history of

precedence among European monarchies The order of precedence among European monarchies was a much-contested theme of European history, until it lost its salience following the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Origins Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, many of the new politi ...

; and on the sides, two military actions in which La Feuillade had participated, the

crossing of the Rhine The crossing of the Rhine River by a mixed group of barbarians which included Vandals, Alans and Suebi is traditionally considered to have occurred on the last day of the year 406 (December 31, 406). The crossing transgressed one of the Roman E ...

of June 1672 and the

Siege of Besançon The siege of Besançon took place from 25 April to 22 May 1674 during the Franco-Dutch War, when French forces nominally led by Louis XIV of France invaded Franche-Comté, then part of the Spanish Empire. Siege works were supervised by the duc ...

of 1674. Desjardins was also commissioned to produce four circular medallions () in bronze for the base of the monument, but only two were eventually installed there while the other two were replaced by inscriptions: ''The Destruction of Heresy'', referring to the

Edict of Fontainebleau The Edict of Fontainebleau (18 October 1685, published 22 October 1685) was an edict issued by French King Louis XIV and is also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes (1598) had granted Huguenots the right to prac ...

of 1685 that revoked the

Edict of Nantes The Edict of Nantes () was an edict signed in April 1598 by Henry IV of France, King Henry IV and granted the minority Calvinism, Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was predominantl ...

of 1598 and led to the expulsion of France's Protestants or

Huguenots The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

; and ''The Abolition of Duels'', referring to Louis's various initiatives starting in 1662 and especially his ordinance of 1679 by which he attempted to put an end to

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...

s as a form of private justice in the French nobility. Desjardins's other two medallions, on the Doge of Genoa and the Swedes in Germany, were reused in the side lanterns.

Side lanterns and medallions

Around the monument, on four points of the near-circular square, were monumental lanterns (), each of them made of three columns of colored marble holding a naval lamp and decorated with two garlands of three circular medallions each, thus six by lantern. These lanterns provided for the illumination of the square and monument at night. In practice, however, they were not all completed. Some of the medallions were only temporary ones made in stucco, and possibly no more than half of the total (i.e. a dozen) were produced in bronze. Aside from the two initially created by Desjardins for the central monument, the others medallions were created by Flemish sculptor Jean Regnault (or Arnould) and caster Pierre Le Nègre, based on drawings by

Pierre Mignard Pierre Mignard or Pierre Mignard I (; 17 November 1612 – 30 May 1695), called "Mignard le Romain" to distinguish him from his brother Nicolas Mignard, was a French painter known for his religious and mythological scenes and portraits. He was a ...

. A contemporary engraving gives the following list for the themes of the 24 medallions: 1.

Battle of Rocroi The Battle of Rocroi, fought on 19 May 1643, was a major engagement of the Thirty Years' War between a French army, led by the 21-year-old Duke of Enghien (later known as the Great Condé) and Spanish forces under General Francisco de Melo ...

in 1643; 2. Restoration of military discipline (reform of 1665); 3. Dutch rescued in

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

, 1664 (actually 1665 during the

Second Anglo-Dutch War The Second Anglo-Dutch War, began on 4 March 1665, and concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Breda (1667), Treaty of Breda on 31 July 1667. It was one in a series of Anglo-Dutch Wars, naval wars between Kingdom of England, England and the D ...

); 4. Fight of Saint-Gotthard in Hungary, 1665 (actually 1664); 5. Tournai, Lille and C. taken in 1667 (during the

War of Devolution The War of Devolution took place from May 1667 to May 1668. In the course of the war, Kingdom of France, France occupied large parts of the Spanish Netherlands and County of Burgundy, Franche-Comté, both then provinces of the Holy Roman Empire ...

; "C." may be either

Courtrai Kortrijk ( , ; or ''Kortrik''; ), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. With its 80,000 inhabitants (2024) Kortrijk is the capital and largest cit ...

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

); 6. Justice reform in 1667 (the ); 7. Pyramid erected in Rome in 1664 and torn down in 1668 (the

Corsican Guard Affair The Corsican Guard Affair was an event in French and papal history, illustrating Louis XIV of France's will to impose his power on other European leaders. On 20 August 1662, soldiers of pope Alexander VII's Corsican Guard came to blows with the F ...

); 8. Takeover of Maastricht in 1673; 9.

Battle of Seneffe The Battle of Seneffe took place on 11 August 1674 during the Franco-Dutch War, near Seneffe in Belgium, then part of the Spanish Netherlands. A Kingdom of France, French army commanded by Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, Condé and a comb ...

in 1674; 10. Victorious fights in Germany in 1674 and 1675; 11. Naval fight in Sicily, 1676 (presumably the

Battle of Augusta The Battle of Augusta took place near Augusta, Sicily on 22 April 1676 during the Franco-Dutch War. It featured a French fleet under Abraham Duquesne, and a combined Dutch-Spanish fleet, under the overall command of Francisco de la Cerda. Fo ...

); 12. Battle of Palermo, 1676; 13. Storming of Valenciennes, 1677; 14. Battle of Cassel, 1677; 15. Takeover of Cambrai, 1677; 16. Dutch fleet burnt at Tobago in America, 1676 (actually 1677); 17.

Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

taken in 1678; 18. Swedes reestablished in Germany, 1679 (by the Treaty of Fontainebleau); 19. and Strasbourg returned on the same day, 1681 (during the

War of the Reunions The War of the Reunions (1683–84) was a conflict between France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, with limited involvement by Genoa. It can be seen as a continuation of the War of Devolution (1667–1668) and the Franco-Dutch War (1672–167 ...

); 20. Capture of Luxembourg, 1684; 21. The Junction of the Two Seas (by the

Canal du Midi The Canal du Midi (; ) is a long canal in Southern France (). Originally named the ''Canal Royal en Languedoc'' (Royal Canal in Languedoc) and renamed by French revolutionaries to ''Canal du Midi'' in 1789, the canal is considered one of the g ...

in 1681); 22. Submission of Genoa, 1685 (Doge Francesco Maria Imperiale Lercari's visit to Versailles); 23. The seas freed from the pirates, 1685; 24. Ambassadors from

Muscovy Muscovy or Moscovia () is an alternative name for the Principality of Moscow (1263–1547) and the Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721). It may also refer to: *Muscovy Company, an English trading company chartered in 1555 *Muscovy duck (''Cairina mosch ...

in 1668 (

Pyotr Potemkin Pyotr Ivanovich Potemkin (; 1617–1700), also spelled Potyomkin, was a Russian courtier, diplomat and namestnik of Borovsk during the reigns of tsars Alexis I and Feodor III. He was a voivode during the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) and took Lu ...

), 1681 (Pyotr Potemkin and Stefan Volkov) and 1685 (Semyon Erofeevich Almazov and Semyon Ippolitov), of Guinea in 1670 (Matteo Lopes, on behalf of the Kingdom of Allada), of Morocco and Fez in 1682 ( Mohammad Temim, on behalf of

Ismail Ibn Sharif Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif (, – 22 March 1727) was a Sultan of Morocco from 1672 to 1727, as the second ruler of the 'Alawi dynasty. He was the seventh son of Sharif ibn Ali, Moulay Sharif and was governor of the province of Fez and the north o ...

), of

Siam Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

in 1684 (led by , preceding the grander embassy of 1686), and of

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

in 1683 (Djiafar-Aga-Effendi, during the French-Algerian War).

Reception

The monument was generally well received on esthetic grounds and was widely considered Desjardins's major masterpiece. In the 1692 portrait of Desjardins submitted by

Hyacinthe Rigaud Jacint Rigau-Ros i Serra (; 18 July 1659 – 29 December 1743), known in French as Hyacinthe Rigaud (), was a Catalan-French baroque painter most famous for his portraits of Louis XIV and other members of the French nobility. Biography Rigau ...

for entry into the

Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture The Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (; ) was founded in 1648 in Paris, France. It was the premier art institution of France during the latter part of the Ancien Régime until it was abolished in 1793 during the French Revolution. I ...

, the sitter was represented with his hand on the captive statue of Holland. At the same time, the entire project was criticized for the unrestrained adulation of Louis XIV and humiliation of fellow European nations that were inherent in the program. The March 1686 inauguration ceremony, complete with artillery salvos, military march, incense and genuflections, was considered way over the top by the

Duke of Saint-Simon Duke of Saint-Simon (; ) was a title in the Peerage of France and later in the Peerage of Spain. It was granted in 1635 to Claude de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, Claude de Rouvroy, comte de Rasse.. The title's name refers to the seigneury that wa ...

who attended it while a child and found it verging on cult.

François-Timoléon de Choisy François-Timoléon de Choisy (; 16 August 1644 – 2 October 1724) was a French abbé, writer, and member of the Académie Française. He is known for his memoirs, historical and religious writings, and travel accounts. His posthumously publish ...

similarly mocked the elevation of Louis to godlike status as a hubristic echo of pagan Roman emperor-worship. Anonymous poems, pamphlets and caricatures were circulated both in France and abroad, lambasting the monument and not least the "immortal man" dedicace, which, by denying the monarch's mortality, put into question his responsibility before God. The offensive depiction of France's neighbors as vanquished captives did nothing to help French diplomacy, and was viewed several decades later as having possibly contributed to the kingdom's isolation. A follow-up bombastic urban design project on a larger scale than the Place des Victoires, started in 1685 and intended to be named the , was sharply toned down in 1699 to a more domestically-focused . That year, Louis XIV's senior official

Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain Louis may refer to: People * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer Other uses * Louis (coin), a French coin * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also * ...

specifically referred in a letter to the to the "reliefs, slaves, and inscriptions of the statue of the Place des Victoires" as the example not to follow while aiming at something "wise and reasonable" for the new square, now known as the

Place Vendôme The Place Vendôme (), earlier known as the Place Louis-le-Grand, and also as the Place Internationale, is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madelein ...

Later history

The lanterns were permanently turned off in 1699, decommissioned by royal order in 1717, and dismantled in 1718. La Feuillade's son donated their twelve precious marble columns to the

Theatines The Theatines, officially named the Congregation of Clerics Regular (; abbreviated CR), is a Catholic order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men founded by Archbishop Gian Pietro Carafa on 14 September 1524. Foundation The order wa ...

congregation of Paris, then established on what is now

Quai Voltaire The Quai Voltaire () is a street and quay located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. 308 meters long, it lies between the Quai Malaquais and the Quai Anatole-France. The Quai Voltaire begins at the Rue des Saints-Pères and ends at the Rue du Bac ...

, for their unfinished church. After his death in 1725 the Theatines, who were short of money, sold them to the

Paris Foreign Missions Society The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (, , MEP) is a Catholic Missionary order, missionary organization. It is not a religious institute, but an organization of secular clergy, secular priests and Laity, lay persons dedicated to missionary wo ...

, the , and

Sens Cathedral Sens Cathedral () is a Catholic cathedral in Sens in Burgundy, eastern France. The cathedral, dedicated to Saint Stephen, is the seat of the Archbishop of Sens. Sens was the first cathedral to be built in the Gothic architectural style (the B ...

. The latter reemployed four of the columns for its altar

baldachin A baldachin, or baldaquin (from ), is a canopy of state typically placed over an altar or throne. It had its beginnings as a cloth canopy, but in other cases it is a sturdy, permanent Architecture, architectural feature, particularly over Alta ...

, erected in 1742 under Archbishop

Jean-Joseph Languet de Gergy Jean-Joseph Languet de Gergy (; 25 August 1677 – 11 May 1753) was a Catholic French bishop and theologian. He was first bishop of Soissons and then archbishop of Sens. He was a member of the ''Académie française''. Biography Son of the pub ...

on a design by

Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni Jean-Nicolas Servan, also known as Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni (2 May 1695 – 19 January 1766) was an Italian decorator, architect, scene-painter, firework designer and trompe-l'œil specialist. He was born in Florence, the son of a French ...

. In 1790, the statues of the captives, deemed an offense to the new spirit of freedom, were "liberated" and initially relocated at the

Louvre Palace The Louvre Palace (, ), often referred to simply as the Louvre, is an iconic French palace located on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, occupying a vast expanse of land between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxe ...

. On 10 August 1792, during that day's insurrection, the monument's main statue was toppled to be melted into cannons. Parts of the decoration, including the four bronze reliefs, were salvaged by

Alexandre Lenoir Marie Alexandre Lenoir (; 27 December 1761 – 11 June 1839) was a French archaeologist. Self-taught, he devoted himself to saving France's historic monuments, sculptures and tombs from the ravages of the French Revolution, notably those of Sain ...

for his . A temporary woodwork monument was erected to celebrate the insurrectionist victims of 10 August 1792, which in turn was removed during the

Consulate A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth countries, a ...

. Napoleon then commissioned a bronze heroic statue of General Louis Desaix which was produced by

Claude Dejoux Claude Dejoux (23 January 1732 – 18 October 1816) was a French sculptor. Early years Claude Dejoux was born on 23 January 1732 in Vadans, Jura. Descended from the Counts of Joux, Claude Dejoux was born into a family of poor farmers. He start ...

and inaugurated in 1810. The nude sculpture was widely disliked and removed in 1814 before Napoleon's fall. Its metal was used for the new Equestrian statue of Henry IV by

François-Frédéric Lemot François-Frédéric Lemot (4 November 1772 — 6 May 1827) was a French sculptor, working in the Neoclassical style. Biography Lemot was born at Lyon. Having briefly studied architecture at the Academy of Besançon, then having made his way to P ...

, inaugurated on the

Pont Neuf The Pont Neuf (, "New Bridge") is the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris, France. It stands by the western (downstream) point of the Île de la Cité, the island in the middle of the river that was, between 250 and 225 BC, ...

in 1818. A more permanent replacement was erected in 1822, namely an equestrian statue of Louis XIV by

François Joseph Bosio Baron François Joseph Bosio (19 March 1768 – 29 July 1845) was a Monegasque sculptor who achieved distinction in the first quarter of the nineteenth century with his work for Napoleon and for the restored French monarchy. Biography Born in ...

. This monument bears no visual relationship with Desjardin's original, even though its program overlaps especially as the 1672 crossing of the Rhine is represented on one of Bosio's two bronze reliefs on the pedestal. Meanwhile, the statues of the four captives were placed in 1804 in front of

Les Invalides The Hôtel des Invalides (; ), commonly called (; ), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and an old soldi ...

, where they remained until 1939. In 1960 their ownership was transferred to the

, which in 1961 had them deposited in the where they remained until 1992. In 1993, in the context of the museum's expansion known as the

Grand Louvre The Grand Louvre refers to the decade-long project initiated by French President François Mitterrand in 1981 of expanding and remodeling the Louvre – both the building and the museum – by moving the Ministry of the Economy and Finance (Fran ...

project, they were transferred, together with other preserved parts of the monument, to their current location in the newly created , where they dominate the courtyard's lower section. Eleven bronze medallions are also preserved at the Louvre. The two that decorated the monument's basis became part of the museum's collections in 1836 after having been kept at the Musée des Monuments français: * ''The Abolition of Duelling'' * ''The Destruction of Heresy (1685)'' Five medallions from the lanterns were purchased during the Revolution by

King George III of Great Britain George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Great Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great B ...

and donated by the UK to France in 1914: * ''The Restoration of Military Discipline (1665)'', by Arnould * ''The Pyramid of the Corsicans in Rome (1668)'', by Arnould * ''Capture of a City'', believed in the past to depict the

Siege of Valenciennes (1676–1677) The siege of Valenciennes took place from 28 February to 17 March 1677, during the Franco-Dutch War, when Valenciennes, then in the Spanish Netherlands, was attacked by a French army under the François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg, du ...

, by Arnould * ''The Reestablishment of the Swedes in Germany (1679)'', by Desjardins * ''The Submission of the Doge of Genoa (1685)'', by Desjardins The remaining four, all by Arnould, were acquired by the Louvre between 1980 and 2006: * The ''Victory of Saint Gotthard (1664)'' * A second version of ''The Reestablishment of the Swedes in Germany'', after Desjardins's was found not respectful enough of the Swedish monarchy * ''The Junction of the Two Seas (1681)'' * ''The Magnificent Buildings of Versailles'' (which does not appear in the 1686 engraving's list cited above)

Gallery

File:Captifs Desjardins Louvre RF4410 - 1.jpg, The four captives, now at the

File:Louvre - panoramio (11).jpg, ''Spain'', or ''Hope'' File:0 Captif - M. Van den Bogaert - RF 4410 - Louvre.JPG, ''Holland'', or ''Anger'' File:Louvre - panoramio (12).jpg, ''Brandenburg'', or ''Grief'' File:Louvre - panoramio (13).jpg, ''Holy Roman Empire'', or ''Despondency'' File:Louvre Desjardins SPQR.jpg, Detail of trophies File:F0078 Louvre Desjardins Paix de Nimede MR3380 rwk.jpg, ''The Peace of Nijmegen'', Louvre File:Louvre Desjardins Ambassador.jpg, ''Spain acknowkledges France's precedence'', Louvre File:F0076 Louvre Desjardins Passage du Rhin MR3382 rwk.jpg, ''The crossing of the Rhine'', Louvre File:F0080 Louvre Desjardins conquete Fanche-Comte MR3379 rwk.jpg, ''The siege of Besançon'', Louvre File:Desjardins - L'Hérésie détruite.jpg, ''The Destruction of Heresy'', Louvre File:Victoires Abolition Duels.jpg, ''The Abolition of Duelling'', Louvre File:Victoires Doge.jpg, ''The Submission of the Doge of Genoa'', Louvre File:Victoires SaintGothard.jpg, ''The Victory of Saint Gotthard'', Louvre File:Victoires Versailles.jpg, ''The Magnificent Buildings of Versailles'', Louvre File:Victoires Pyramide.jpg, ''The Pyramid of the Corsican Guard, Erected then Demolished in Rome'', Louvre File:Victoires Discipline.jpg, ''The Restoration of Military Discipline'', Louvre File:Fanal place des Victoires Paris.jpg, Engraving of one of the side lanterns, by Nicolas Guérard (1686) File:Paris - Place des Victoires, Aquarell von Jacques Chereau + 1776, 1775, Bibliothèque Nationale de France.jpg, The square and monument, by Jacques Chereau (1775) File:François-Nicolas Martinet - Description historique de Paris- I- Statue pédestre de Louis le Grand.jpg, Engraving of the monument by

François-Nicolas Martinet François-Nicolas Martinet (1731 - c. 1800) was a French engineer, engraver and naturalist. Although trained as an engineer and draftsman, he began to produce engravings for books and it later became his primary profession. Martinet's year of b ...

(1779) File:Vue de la place des Victoires 1786 Paul Grégoire.jpg, Drawing of the central statue by (1789) File:Desaix place des Victoires Paris.jpg, The statue of Desaix, anonymous engraving (1810) File:Place des Victoires Louis XIV.jpg, Bosio's equestrian statue of Louis XIV (1822, photographed in 2007)

Notes

{{RefList Monuments and memorials in Paris Sculptures in Paris Allegorical sculptures in France Bronze sculptures in Paris Outdoor sculptures in Paris