Bourdelle's "La France": Montauban copy

When I first saw Bourdelle's La France in Paris in 2011 (on LoS), it encompassed a lot of what I was writing about at the time, featuring symbols with which I'd become very familiar:  A strong woman as an embodiment of France, a serpent, pillars, and a triangle.

There are four bronze castings of the sculpture made from the original maquette, and the Paris version is the fourth (dedicated June 14, 1948).  Another is in Montauban, the capital of the Tarn-et-Garonne, just a short hop up the road from chez moi.  This second casting was dedicated on November 13, 1932.  The base feautures plaques commemorating every conflict from WWI to 21st-century military actions in places such as Chad and ex-Yugoslavia, a couple of names each on small "ex-voto" compared to the hundreds of names around the base naming the staggering number of victims of the Great War.  If you examine my not-so-great photographs, you'll see that for some reason in version two the spear carried by the Athena-like woman is longer than version four, the spearhead seems slightly different, and it certainly isn't hung with the two wreaths one sees on the Paris casting.

The third version is also quite a bit different, as it (quoting myself): 

had originally been placed at the entrance of the "foire d'Alger." After the foire, it was put on the terrace of the Musée de Beaux-Arts, where she scrutinized the Mediterranean.  This one has the most storied history.

As a symbol of de Gaulle, the statue was blown up on the evening of November 26, 1961 by the OAS (Organisation armée secrète), a far-right group who despised de Gaulle for what they perceived as his treason towards Algeria, then a French Department, after his actions led to Algerian independence in 1962.  The socle was pulverized and the statue damaged. 

After this symbolic attack, the pieces were collected and stored until the statue could be repaired.  The French ambassador obtained permission to recover the statue but the French administration refused to pay for the transport cost, instead foisting the responsibility upon Paris' Bourdelle museum.  It was eventually taken to be repaired but the part of the support which depicted the snakes, as well as that part of the lance which held the olive branches, were too damaged to be repaired.  This lance was later sawed down in order for it to fit inside the museum of the Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan military academy.

So.  Not much new, I just happened to stumble upon La France (#2) in Montauban recently, after having forgotten my idea to try and hunt it down after reading about it while researching the one in Paris.  The different castings each have their own history, and I was surprised to learn they had originally been cast for different kinds of monuments. For example, the original maquette was made to commemorate the US' entry into the First World War.  The project floundered but a half-sized casting was exposed at the Salon in 1923.  In 1925, the full-sized, 9m version was cast for use in an expo, after which it was acquired by Briançon, where it stands alone as the city's war memorial.  The second was made directly for Montauban's monument aux morts.  The commission for the Montauban monument, described as a "temple," was given to Bourdelle in 1921, but the monument was not completed until 1930, a year after Bourdelle's death.  The third sat outside a museum in Algiers, was dynamited by the OAS, and then reassembled for another museum, inside this time, at the École St-Cyr.  Number four honors the Free French and "the call" of June 18 by de Gaulle, and was privately funded.  The OAS must have been thrilled.

In addition to the four 9m casts, there are also some 4.6m casts held by various museums.

Apparently, Bourdelle considered La France to be his greatest work, which is saying something, considering that Bourdelle's body of work is impressive in both quantity and quality.  If you look at his lifespan, 1861-1929, the radical modernity of his work is especially striking.  It's really kind of surprising he's not as well-known as say, Rodin, who was an admirer.  I'm lucky that quite a few of his sculptures dot Montauban.  La France is only one of many Bourdelle's works to be found in and around the historic city center near what is now a museum for another native-son, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.

As the flames rose to her Roman nose

Apropos of the last post, after being burned at the stake, Joan of Arc's ashes were thrown into the Seine.

Huh.  The same fate befell Jacques DeMolay and the Templars burned with him:   "Their ashes were then ground up and dumped into the Seine, so as to leave no relics behind."

And as Gid recently reminded us, relics and miracles are still a hot commodity....

"Everything begins in mysticism and ends in politics."

Here's a little ditty that brings together a few recurring LoS themes and fancies:  snakes, wimmins, a triangle, political vandalism, violence, sculpture....

It all begins with a quotation from a fellow by the name of Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle, known as "Chucky D" to his pals, not to be confused with Public Enemy front-man "Chuck D".   Actually, I just made that up.  One of his nicknames was, however, "the great asparagus."  Which just goes to prove that truth is stranger than fiction.

Flag of Free France; Wikicommons

Nous dirons à la France, simplement, comme Péguy : « Mère, voici vos fils qui se sont tant battus ». General de Gaulle, June 18, 1942

 

The line comes from Charles Peguy's poem Ève (1913).  Péguy was an ardent socialist and nationalist (two words which never sound well together) and later in his short life became a devout and mystical Catholic.  He wrote a play Le Mystère de la charité de Jeanne d'Arc that first appeared in 1910.  Joan of Arc, as we have already seen, remains a potent nationalist symbol in France.  He also had a special fondness for the Virgin Mary; indeed, he spent the night before his death decorating with flowers a small statue in the village where he was stationed.  Despite his devotion to Eve, Jeanne d'Arc and the Virgin, he was killed by a shot in the forehead on the eve of the battle of the Marne on September 5th, 1914.

Charles De Gaulle was evoking Péguy in 1942 to honor the volunteers who fought for Free France. In 1948 a monument was created for these volunteers, the centerpiece of which is a massive bronze sculpture by Antoine Bourdelle, student of Rodin and native of Montauban (prefecture of the department in which I live). Péguy's words "Mère, voici vos fils qui se sont tant battus", undoubtedly because of de Gaulle's speech, are etched on the front.

Appropriate line from a poem (Ève) which also includes the lines:  "Happy are those who die for the carnal earth/ but only if it be for a just war."  I've also come across another interesting piece of information about Peguy's poems here (no author listed):

"The arms of Jesus are the Cross of Lorraine / Both the blood in the artery and the blood in the vein, / Both the source of grace and the clear fountain" (from La Tapisserie de Sainte Geneviève, 1912). Noteworthy, during World War II the Cross of Lorraine was used as the symbol of the forces of Free France. Both the Resistance and the Vichy government cited Péguy's patriotic writings.

The same article also has the following quote:

"Faith is a great tree, an oak tree rooted deep in the heart of France", Péguy wrote in Le mystère des Saints Innocents (1912). 

This is very prophetic, if only a prophecy by coincidence.  The name "de Gaulle" is said to come from either "gaule" a long pole which was used in the Middle Ages to beat olives from the trees, or "galle" which in the language of Asterix means "oak", the sacred tree of the Druids.  One could argue that de Gaulle was France's mighty oak in the storm, rooted deeply and keeping the faith of a Free France alive.  Interestingly, the lance, or long pole (gaule) of the sculpture honoring the fighters of Free France is adorned with olives.  Another prophetic coincidence.  The statue dates from 1922.


Bourdelle's "La France," fourth copy, Paris.  LoS photo.

Peguy's lines translate into ""Mother, behold your sons who have fought so hard."  This line undoubtedly refers to the crucifixion of Jesus as described in John 19 (KJV): 

26 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! 27 Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. 

Indeed the statue features a stylized representation of the crucified Jesus, on an inverted triangle.  I'm not sure why or if there are other examples of this symbolism.  Its inclusion here is certainly to link Peguy's lines to the Crucifixion, thus effectively linking the dead of the Free French Forces ("FFL" in French) to Jesus' martyrdom.  Thinking back to Ève, which begins "Happy are those who die for a carnal earth", one is reminded of the Beatitudes, which begin with either "Blessed are the...." which some translate as "Happy are the...." 

La France, detail.  LoS photo.

We have discussed the serpent quite a bit.  Here it could refer back to the story of Moses in the desert, quoted by Jesus:  14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3, KJV) or the conflation of Biblical types indicating that ultimately, the crucifixion was a victory over Satan. 

But the snake isn't looking very vanquished here.  Indeed; it seems to be quite friendly with the woman.  As wee have seen, Péguy seems fascinated by sacred women and in the "trinity" mentioned above, Eve and the Virgin are linked by the serpent, a link explicitly referred to in French Marial iconography.  As Eve is ostensibly responsible for mortality and the need for sexual intercourse to reproduce, Mary, with a sex-free conception, gave birth to the perfect man who could return us to immortality. "If you believe in that sort of thing," to quote my childhood hero Indiana Jones.  (See my essay here for more on this). 

But perhaps this is pushing it a bit far, as I've read else where that the woman is Athena.  Thus the serpent might represent Erichthonius, of whom Athena is the adoptive mother.  According to the tale, Hephaestus once tried to rape Athena and some semen shot onto her thigh.  She flicked the offending glob onto the ground.  It was from this that Erichthonius was born.  There are variations upon this tale.  Erichthonius may be the snake that accompnaied Athena, a mythical ruler who may have been half-serpent or, in a variation, was once seen with a snake coiled about him.  Thus in this context the serpent may represent wisdom or Athena's unviolated purity.  This would be in keeping with a nationalist rhetoric, or to commemorate the Resistance to foreign invaders.

La France, detail.  LoS photo.

I would also comment on the gesture in this statue.  It is said to be Athena scanning the horizon, but it also forms a kind of salute.  There is something of her gesture of the Venus of Lloret, although I may be pushing this a bit to far.  In that post I discussed that both Venus and Athena, according to some legends, were born as fully-grown, independent women.  This would also fit into a nationalist identity; the statue is called "La France" after all, and it is no one's child.

I found quite a bit more about this statue on a website containing extracts of an article originally appearing in Memoire Vive (2010), the journal of the Centre de Documentation Historique de l'Algérie.  I have translated and summarized the important bits as follows.

 

In 1922 or thereabouts, the French government decided to erect a monument commemorating the arrival of American troops at the end of WW1, in 1917.  It was to be built near Bordeaux and two architects (Ventre and Damour) thought about placing "La France" in front of a lighthouse, scouring the horizon for the arrival of allied troops.

Bourdelle was eventually chosen to execute the work and after some equivocation he took up the task.

The statue was to be 9 meters high, 3.4 meters wide and 1.4 meters deep.  Bourdelle chose to represent France with Pallas Athena in her aspect as warrior goddess, enveloped in snakes, allegedly representing wisdom, but which may have Biblical implications or involve metaphors of purity.  She indeed seems to be holding her arm up as if to look into the distance.  She has a shield and lance, this latter adorned with olive branches of peace (recall that "de Gaulle" may come a word for a pole used to beat olives from trees).

His niece served as the model for the figure, although it was apparently his secretary who posed for the arms.  It is said that when the latter asked why she was enveloped in snakes, Bourdelle smiled and said:  "As they say in France, be careful of the Americans."  (DSK would concur.  Come to think of it, both his tales of woe and Athena's involve an incriminating glob of semen....)

Apparently, four bronze examples of "la France" were made from the original models.

One was used by Bourdelle for his First World War memorial in Montauban.  I'm not sure when it was made, but the memorial was dedicated on November 13, 1932.  It is currently located on the esplanade of the Cours Foucault (pictured here).

Another decorated the entrance to the Grand Palais during the exposition of decorative arts in 1925.  It was stored away waiting for a planned museum of modern decorative arts and it lay there, abandoned.  It was later discovered by the mayor of Birançon, who contacted the artist's widow in order to acquire it for his town.  This one measured 4.55 m in height and was placed on the porch of the local Chateau, gazing over the peaks of the Alps. (pictured here).

In 1938, another example was placed at the exit of the train station of the Bois de Boulogne to salute the arrival a visit by English royals.  The exact location remains unknown and it would appear that this was in fact a gilded plaster copy destined for the Palais de Tokyo, later to become the Museum of Modern Art.

The copy which started this whole post, number four, was erected on June 18, 1948 to commemorate the "appel du 18 juin," the speech by de Gaulle in which Péguy was quoted.  It was erected at the instigation of General de Larminat, president of  the Association des Français Libres.  This rests upon a socle with a plaque honoring the memory of those who fought for Free France, adorned with the Cross of Lorraine.  It replaced the gilded plaster copy while awaiting work yet to be completed, an Apollo by Charles Despiau. 

That same year, de Larminat honored the FFL and colonel Colonna d'Ornano, killed in action in 1941, by placing a similar plaque on the socle of the Algiers version. It reads:

" Mère voici vos fils qui se sont tant battus

Aux volontaires des Forces Françaises Libres morts

pour l'honneur et la Liberté de la France

18 juin 1940, 9 mai 1945 "

This third version (1935) measured 9 meters (high, I assume) and had originally been placed at the entrance of the "foire d'Alger." After the foire, it was put on the terrace of the Musée de Beaux-Arts, where she scrutinized the Mediterranean.  This one has the most storied history. 

As a symbol of de Gaulle, the statue was blown up on the evening of November 26, 1961 by the OAS (Organisation armée secrète), a far-right group who despised de Gaulle for what they perceived as his treason towards Algeria, then a French Department, after his actions led to Algerian independence in 1962.  The socle was pulverized and the statue damaged. 

After this symbolic attack, the pieces were collected and stored until the statue could be repaired.  The French ambassador obtained permission to recover the statue but the French administration refused to pay for the transport cost, instead foisting the responsibility upon Paris' Bourdelle museum.  It was eventually taken to be repaired but the part of the support which depicted the snakes, as well as that part of the lance which held the olive branches, were too damaged to be repaired.  This lance was later sawed down in order for it to fit inside the museum of the Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan military academy.  A fitting tribute...this was where de Gaulle earned the nickname "the great asparagus."  Full circle.

La France, version three: 
http://www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/page/affichelieu.php?idLang=fr&idLieu=781

So, it took some digging but some interesting facts have been brought to light.  The version I saw seems largely forgotten, not quite as honored as her sisters elsewhere.  As I studied this curiosity, kids skateboarded below and a couple of French hipsters cadged cigarettes while a few yards away, hordes of people stood in line for the Basquiat expo.  Which somehow seems a fitting example of another Péguy quote:

"It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been committed for fear of not looking sufficiently progressive."

Putain, con! Quelles loloches!

A feminine personification of a nation's ideals--a sort of tutelary goddess--looms rather large in the Western tradition.  In the US, we have Lady Liberty and in the UK, Britannia.  Mother Russia comes to mind.  While these symbols may have faded somewhat in these countries, France still has an omnipresent female symbol capable of stoking strong emotions:  Marianne.

Marianne is pictured on the most common French stamp (since at least 1849) and figures in the official government logo.  Many town halls feature her portrait and the Lodges of the Grand Orient display a bust of her.

She is usually pictured as a young woman wearing a Phrygian cap and a loose-fitting dress, sometimes with her breasts exposed, as in Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People (1830).  Said to be an allegory of Reason and Liberty, Marianne also fits nicely within the French tradition of women saviors.  Joan of Arc is widely used, especially by French nationalists, as their symbol.  Not to mention the über-maiden:  Mary.  It occurs to me that Marianne = Mary-Anne.  Anne of course, being Mary's mother and, according to Catholic tradition, a virgin mother....

Attitudes towards prominent breasts like Delacroix portrayed may be changing in France, at least for Neuville-en-Ferrain, a small commune located near Lille.  The mayor had the local, um, bust of Marianne removed because her breasts were too large. (LA Times).The artist who made the sculpture says "I made the breasts prominent to symbolize the generosity of the Republic.  This symbolism was lost on the locals:  'Remarks were made, during weddings for example.  'It was making people gossip.' (Daily Mail).  It has been replaced by a bust inspired by French actress Laetitia Casta.  Odd choice; Casta is something of a J. Lo/Dolly Parton figure; that is to say, known for her curves, especially her bust.  Indeed, the replacement seems even bustier, more natural and perhaps for this reason even sexier.  Maybe the prominence of the first Marianne's breasts was less offensive than their gravity-defying pertness.  Was anger over an impossible ideal at fault?
 

The offending Marianne, France 3 via LA Times.

Replacement Marianne, via Daily Mail

As the author of an article on this story has written, the kerfuffle back in 2002 with John Ashcroft comes to mind.  You may recall that like in this case, breasts were involved.  Apparently, someone was unhappy with the fact that press conferences at the Dept. of Justice took place before a topless woman, hands raised to the sky.

The original Marianne cost the commune of Neuville-en-Ferrain 1400 euros and its replacement 900, a total of about 3300 USD.  This is still less than the 8000 USD spent by Ashcroft's office on curtains to cover up the bare-breasted statue called the Spirit of Justice, a depiction of the Lady Justice based on the Roman goddess.  Ashcroft's people said this was merely to make a better background for press conferences and had nothing to do with being prudish.  In any event, the curtains have since been removed.

Depictions of Marianne can be highly charged.  Feminists were outraged back in February 2010 because of an image publicizing one Sarkozy's plans; in this image Marianne is pregnant.  It was an ad for a development program to invest in a wide variety of initiatives but which had nothing to do with literal motherhood.  (The Times)

 

“The hand of the state should not be in my uterus, and certainly not to look for money,” said Le Féminin l’Emporte, one of France’s most influential feminist blogs. Detractors also said that the image evoked the slogan “Work, Family, Fatherland” used by the Vichy administration, which collaborated with Hitler during the Second World War.  

Olympe, another feminist blog, said that the Government appeared to be “suggesting that a woman’s work is to have babies whilst the men handle the billions from the loan”. 

Far be it for me to say how women should feel about this, but I get what they're saying.  Making Marianne pregnant to symbolize re-investment in "higher education, research, technology, fast internet access and small business" seems dubious to me.  This image isn't exactly the dynamic ass-kicking Marianne of Delacroix.  More like a knocked-up and spaced out Smurfette.  Not there's anything wrong with being pregnant and it's a logical choice to represent rebirth.  But maybe something more along the lines of J. Howard Miller's "We can do it" poster would have been in order.

In any event, I see this post links nicely to my last about the power of political symbols, how they can encourage vandalism or and anger.  It wasn't my intention.  Just saw the two items at about the same time is all.

So, here's a report (in French) on the story in Neuville-en-Ferrain.  Looks okay to me!  For more on women in French iconography, see my post entitled, curiously enough, Women.  For more on Marianne, includingsome rather sexier versions than the one seen here, check out the French blog Marianne Republicaine.

Whatever happens next, we'll be sure to keep you abreast....

Nord - Une Marianne retirée pour cause de trop gros seins Vidéo Fred-Lille sélectionnée dans Actualité

Women

This title is misleading, because it might just as well read "Woman" and be accurate. Therein lies the central problem I am working on. I don't want to be too simplistic here in reducing all these figures to manifestations of one feminine ideal: capital "W" Woman, and what she represents. But I'm tempted because the conflations and interminglings are so plentiful.

In these examples we find piety, suffering, chastity and martyrdom. But we also find strength, courage and victory. The women here are patrons, benefactresses, protectresses and mediators.

Beauty and erotic allure are also important elements for some of these women. The shapely, comely figures, young, virginal; sometimes a little older and wiser; sometimes strong and wily. Woman, in all Her allure. In these examples, there are no old women. Indeed, there are not even mothers. (Belle Paule is an exception; as a real person she lived to an astonishingly old age for her time and her children were as much reputed for their beauty as she.)

Another exception to this last rule is the Virgin Mary, whose presence hovers all over these other women like an umbrella. As a Mother, she is the supreme example. But this may be mitigated by the supernatural nature of her conception. "Immaculate" is the word, and it extends into these other feminine examples as well.

On the other hand, what we have here in this series of maidens or women are beings so pure and distant as to be unobtainable, or sexless allegorical creatures which exist in realms distant from the touch of man. To approach these women as sexual beings would seem perverse. There's a double enjeux going on, a complex interplay of approach and withdrawal which is itself is a kind of sexual engagement with a mental idea, or ideal.

The hesitancy with which I approach this subject is a structural metaphor for what I see in these depictions of women, as well as the effect of the interplay between eroticism and chastity. These women are "unapproachable" and in their remarkable chastity "irreproachable" as well. Which is a sort of paradox; perhaps it is the combination of these two factors which gives their erotic aspects a bittersweet sentiment.

I have arranged the women in chronological order, mixing substantiated dates with estimated ones. Where a legend arose without assigning a particular date to the story, I used the date of the legend. When the women correspond with another datable event, I use the date of the event.

Here I will present my first attempts to come up with some common characteristics of feminine ideals present in several figures: real, legendary and allegorical; these are initial thoughts and shouldn't be considered my definitive words on the topic. I'm hoping that eventually, should this lead me somewhere, I may turn it into a more staid and scholarly work. For now it will be typical LoS fare.

Also, after the Venus of Lloret post, many friends responded with a bemused "Why, you're becoming a feminist!" Hardly. I'm not planning to enter the Womens' Studies field just yet; many might even find my words typically masculine, slightly offensive. Who knows? Neither pandering to nor refuting a "feminist" line is my intent. I just want to document what I've come across and my reactions to it.

Simple? Good. Let's begin:

"Les puelles" (c. 257): legend

 

Two Christian women (puellae remembered as "les Puelles") piously gathered up the remains and buried them in a "deep ditch", that they might not be profaned by the pagans.

Source

Saint Sernin is the patron of Tolouse and its first Bishop. Legend has it one day as he walked past the altars of the pagan gods and their oracles fell silent; he was asked to pay homage to the gods and he refused. He was seized and executed: tied to a bull which dragged him to his death.  The Puelles then properly buried his remains.  They are celebrated both for their chastity and their martyrdom.

LoS Posts: 

Les Saintes Puelles 

Les Saintes Puelles, Part 2: Where by reading books and visiting places we approximate something like research 

Saintes Puelles, Part 3: Holy Virgins

Dame Carcass (795; 12th c): legend; savior; tutelary

The Emperor Charlemagne besieged the town [Carcassonne] in 795, which was held by Dame Carcass, a Saracen princess. After a five year siege, the only food left was one little pig and a bag of corn. Dame Carcass gave the bag of corn to the pig and sent it out to the ramparts. Charlemagne raised the siege, since he thought there was enough food even to feed a small pig. Before the Emperor left, Dame Carcass rang out the bells making them sound the word Carcassonne.

Source

When I first heard this tale, Dame Carcass launched the pig over the ramparts on a catapult. Maybe that was a bit of Monty Python's Holy Grail sneaking into the picture.

This tale seems to be pure hogwash, heh heh. It would have taken place in the late 8th century but the legend doesn't seem to have appeared until the 12th. It was subsequently reworked in later centuries and is with us today, a colorful and amusing anecdote.

Interesting that the clever woman here is a Muslim woman, yet she offers up the last of the food, a pig. Whether or not she paraded it on the ramparts or flung it over the wall, it is anomalous, unless interpreted as a rejection of the foul swine. This gesture, according to the legend, saved the town.

(I have long had the creeping suspicion that the famous "Black Virgins" which are clusterd in Aveyron and the Pyrenees, may have some link with the Moorish/Christian conflict, some at least have their origins ascribed to this period. I'm not exactly sure where to go with this question.)

At some point Dame Carcass had bells rung in victory, leading someone to say "Carcass sonne" , or "Carcass is ringing the bells." Hence the name of the town. I see her as both a military savior and a tutelary figure.

This is not about Toulouse, but it relates to the theme and broadens the context. I think the rise of the legend is aligned with the rise of a cult of femininity which was at the time leading both the the troubadours notion of the idealized woman in their tales of courtly love, as well as in the rising prominence of the Virgin and her redefinition as a more earthy, emotional and at times erotic figure.

Women who operated the catapult killing Simon de Montfort (1218): legend; saviors

After maintaining the siege for nine months Simon was killed on 25 June 1218. His head was smashed by a stone from a mangonel operated by the women of Toulouse - "donas e tozas e mulhers" (noblewomen, little girls and men's wives). He was initially buried in the Cathedral of Saint-Nazaire at Carcassonne but his body was soon removed to his home in France.

Today, the spot where Simon de Montfort met his end is marked by a plaque set into a wall of pink Toulouse brick (see left). It reads: "Old Montoulieu Gardens - During the siege of Toulouse in the course of the Albigensian Crusade Simon de Montfort was killed here in 1218". The last two lines are a quotation from the Song of the Cathar Wars, laisse 205, cited above: both read "now a stone hit just where it was needed" first in French then in the original Occitan.

Source

Again, women save the day. A catapult is involved. These women are the representatives of all women in Toulouse: noblewomen, little girls and men's wives. All pitching in. I assume that this is analgous to the "We Can Do It" propaganda of WW2. Everyone pitches in to save the homeland when the men are off to war.

Simon is still hated in Toulouse to this day. We may one day look more closely at the guided, falling stone that killed Montfort (Mount Strong, or Strong Mountain) with a blow to the head. 

In Wolfram Von Eschenbach's version of the Grail legend, the Templars are the Grail guardians, which is a stone called "lapsit exillis" or the "stone that fell from heaven."  And head wounds have a variety of esoteric sources, from the murdered Hiram Abiff of Freemasonry to the mysterious "Head wound man" in Tim Wilson's films Water:Pillow and Mamu Rising.

We see of course that strong women are part Toulouse's historical symbolic landscape as well as in the rest of France. Jeanne d'Arc, our next figure, is also a savior, but there is also great suffering and piety in her story. She is at times a Holy Fool, and object of pity and amusement before becoming something of wonder and fear, before reverence.

Jeanne d'Arc (c. 1412-1433): savior; suffering little girl; saint

 

Source

Jeanne d'Arc is not a woman of Toulouse, and she is our first historically verifiable woman. A few remarks can be made here, but nothing that can truly add to the vast scholarship on her life and her meaning. Toulouse has a Place Jeanne d'Arc and there one finds a gilded (daurade) equestrian statue of her. In every church in the south, you will find an icon of her, often right next to the altar, St. Michael slaying the dragon on the other side. In these, she, feminine principle, combines with another armored spiritual entity, Michael. She shares in his victory over Satan. He shares her victory, spiritually, which ultimately lead to French liberation. I suppose the Arc cult picked up steam during WW2.  The French Nationalist party Front National uses her as their symbol.

Jeanne d'Arc, associated with Michael, also assumes a role of the Virgin as ass-kicker of the serpent. In the south at least, Mary is often portrayed treading upon a serpent's head, vanquishing sin. (See Aucamville Project 6 and Jesus was in shape).

She was full of beans that kid!

Clémence Isaure (late 15th c): legend; patroness

LoS Post:
A Legend born from a scam

Floral games named after Flora, (Greek Chloris), the first a goddess the second a nymph associated with flowers and vegetation, rebirth and Spring. Both were married to Gods of the West Wind, heralds of Spring. Ovis states that when she spoke, she exhaled roses. These roses as well as her fertility role, evoke the Virgin Mary. Indeed the Floral Games (Jeux floral) founded in Toulouse by the Consistoire du Gai Savoir (later Compagnie des Jeux floraux) were named after Flora and were held in honor of the Virgin Mary.

Belle Paule (1518-1610): patroness; beauty

Of all the women in this list, only Paule grew old, living to 88. She must have seemed immortal. Ironically, it is her in which beauty and erotic allure reach their zenith. According to the legend, she was obliged to go about averting her gaze so as not to cause disorder; she was likewise obliged to appear at her window once or twice a week in order to appease the adoring crowds below. A book was written about the intimate details of her perfect anatomy. Yet another writer found an anagram in her name for "pure virtue guides." Her chastity was equal to her erotic allure. Buff, and rebuff.

In our introduction we recalled that she had a number of children, each as beautiful as she. It was with this in mind that Toulouse chose to name a new children's hospital after her: the Hôpital Paule de Viguier. This hospital is interesting in that it combined pediatric care with care for mothers and to a lesser extent couples. This name was chosen in 2002. According to their website:

Le conseil d’administration du CHU a décidé de donner au nouvel hôpital de la Mère le nom d’une femme du XVIème siècle qui avait, avec la mythique Clémence Isaure, passionné les toulousains de la Renaissance.

The site recounts her history and legend. What is interesting here is how Paule de Viguier is evoked side by side with Clémence Isaure, a legend. The two are often confused and to some extent, conflated.

All the other girls on this list, on the other hand, were fixed in their youth by early deaths. They are pious and saintly, but damaged, suffering, sometimes deformed. Maybe mentally ill. In any even, disease laid them low very young....

LoS Post:
Belle Paule of Viguier

Dame Tholose (1544): tutelary; allegory

 

When entering the Marly courtyard, visitors can see Dame Tholose (ill. 1 ; cat. 3), a figure which used to be on top of the Dupuy column in Toulouse which has very wisely been put on deposit at the Musée des Augustins. This allegory is by Jean Rancy whom we mentioned above and who, like Pierre Biard’s Fame from the Louvre (ill. 5 ; cat. 36) displayed nearby, is inspired directly by Italian Mannerist models, particularly Mercury by Jean de Bologne.

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La statue de Dame Tholose est revenue dorée. Elle a été installée en janvier 2007 sur la colonne qui domine la place Dupuy. L’été précédent, Dame Tholose alias la Renommée perchée en haut de la colonne Dupuy, avait été emmenée pour être copiée et restaurée. En 1830, Urbain Vitry, architecte de la ville de Toulouse, eut l’idée d’utiliser pour le monument à la gloire du général Dupuy et de la 32ebrigade qui s’étaient illustrés pendant la campagne d’Egypte, une statue des collections municipales «Dame Tholose». En 1832, la girouette et l’écusson furent remplacés par des couronnes de laurier et la statue fut placée en haut de la colonne Dupuy. C’est ainsi qu’elle fût rebaptisée La Renommée.

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As a allegorical or tutelary figure, Dame Tholose is not particularly unique and is in fact not really known by Toulousains. Clémence Isaure and Belle Paule are more well-known names but 99 out of a hundred Toulousains couldn't tell you much about them, depite the artistic iterations to be found on Place Capitole and the Mairie's Salle des Illustres. Dame Tholose, however, brings to mind once again Marianne, the feminine symbol of Republican France. Marianne herself is one of a long list of female tuelaries: Columbia in the US (Lady Liberty, is a more famous manifestation); Britannia in England, Mother Russia. I am curious as to why Russians refer to a Motherland and Germans a Fatherland. I thought it had to do something with Protestantism and the rejection of Mary as such an important figure, but I don't think this theory holds much water upon closer examination. Germany has quite a large Catholic population whereas other Protestant Countries do have women as national personifications. Interesting though that of all the women national personifications of Europe, many are clearly the same figure with similar iconography; I suspect thay all owe a great debt to Athena.

Dame Tholose was the first non-Biblical sculpture erected in Toulouse since Classical Antiquity.  Bare-breasted, she recalls images of Liberty, as in Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People (1830).  The Revolution, radical as it was, failed to eliminate the woman as savior from the collective consciousness.  Liberty gave way to the Marianne, which forms the basis of the Republic's "logo" and is still evoked in its campaigns.  A pregnant Marianne was used in 2010 to publicize a government development program, amid much scandal and feminist anger.  Interesting that for the future health of the nation, a pregnant allegorical figure.  The white cap and garment has other connotations, namely, the ancien régime and....virginity.  She stands against a blue background, traditional color of the Virgin.  Is an immaculate conception being evoked here?  Apparently, the circle of gold stars on a blue field which makes up the European flag.  Oddly, the flag's designer admits to being inspired by the twelve-starred Vigin Mary described in the Book of Revelation and the date it was adopted adopted, 8 December (1955) is on the same day Catholic Feast of the Immaculat Conception of the Virgin Mary.

St. Germaine (1579-1601): suffering little girl; saint

From her birth she seemed marked out for suffering; she came into the world with a deformed hand and the disease of scrofula, and, while yet an infant, lost her mother.

Saint Germaine of Pibrac is know as the "saint of the country" or "regional saint" of Toulouse. Many Saints have trucked through these parts, Benedict, St Vincent de Paul, Aquinas' bones rest here, for example....but it is St. Germaine who is honored. There is not a church in the area without a plaster icon of her (likewise Jeanne d'Arc, St. Thérèse and St. Bernadette).  She is depicted barefoot, perhaps a small lamb at her side, her apron held in her hand and spilling roses to the the ground.

In Pibrac, a large stately basilica stands in her honor. It is much more recent and cut in stone, hence the cleanness of its lines, so unlike the crumbly brick aethestic of the majority of area architecture....

In Launac, near Toulouse, the church is filled with icons of Mary, and one, crowned, was once evidently the subject of great devotion: the crown being our first indication, a few votive plaques another. In the altar to Saint Germaine, Jeanne d'Arc guards the entrance. The cloth hanging from her armor is blue and decorated with fleur de lys. Saint Germain's red skirt, identically draped is red and likewise decorated. Strange monarchic watermark on two-thirds of the tricolor!

Germaine was said to have died just when men were beginning to find her beautiful, which seems a striking detail of her legend.  Years later, her body was found to be incorrupt. She was canonized in 1867.

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St. Bernadette (1844-1879): suffering little girl; saint

As Bernadette later reported to her family and to church and civil investigators, at the ninth visitation the lady told Bernadette to drink from the spring that flowed under the rock, and eat the plants that grew freely there. Although there was no known spring, and the ground was muddy, Bernadette saw the lady pointing with her finger to the spot, and said later she assumed the lady meant that the spring was underground. She did as she was told by first digging a muddy patch with her bare hands and then attempting to drink the brackish drops. She tried three times, failing each time. On the fourth try, the droplets were clearer and she drank them. She then ate some of the plants. When finally she turned to the crowd, her face was smeared with mud and no spring had been revealed. Understandably, this caused much skepticism among onlookers who shouted, "She's a fraud!" or "She's insane!" while embarrassed relatives wiped the adolescent's face clean with a handkerchief. In the next few days, however, a spring began to flow from the muddy patch first dug by Bernadette. Some devout people followed her example by drinking and washing in the water, which was soon reported to have healing properties.

Like Saint Germaine, her body was exhumed some 40 years later and found to be incorrupt.  She was canonized in 1933.

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St. Helena (d. 1885): folk saint

LoS Post:
A Saint in the Terre Cabade

A saint particular to Toulouse.  I've translated an article about her I'll post one day.  She is one of the Virgin's intermediaries and another example of a holy virgin in a region already spoken for.  I see this as a part of a continual need for a more intimate and personal saintly interlocutor; other saints have too many prayers to attend to, as it were.

St. Thérèse (1873-1897): suffering little girl; saint

Monday April 9, 1888 was the Feast of the Annunciation. That morning, Thérèse took one last look at her childhood home and left for Carmel.

Her basilica is the second-largest pilgrimage destination in France, after Lourdes. Even her parents are beatified. She is known as "the little flower". Incidentally, after moving from the Daurade I lived on Rue Belle Paule, just across from a church dedicated the Saint Thérèse.

These last four saints are of the suffering little girl variety and although Germaine lived in the 16th century, her cult was a 19th century phenomenon.  They become objects of affection; there is nothing erotic in them due to their age and pituful circumstances.  I wonder if this is linked to the "invention of childhood" which took place at this time.  When technology, post-Revolutionary ideology and a more affluent working class made it less necessary for children to go straight to work in the fields and mines and to go to school instead.  Question mark.

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The Virgin Mary

Um, where to begin? One thing I didn't know: "Mary, mother of Jesus, is mentioned more in the Qur'an than in the entire New Testament." (Wikipidia) I am most interested in Black Virgins (or Black Madonnas, Vierges Noires in French), which I have yet to delve into on LoS in great depth. She has been dancing around a number of posts but alas, far too many people much more informed and intelligent than I have written a great deal on the topic and I'm not sure what I can add to the dialogue.

I am working from the assumption that she is some kind of Christian-era über mother and as such assumes many of the roles of all women; or, conversely, that other saintly women become intermediaries, local girls on the inside to catch the ear of the queen.

Mary also assumes many aspects of Pagan Goddesses. Isis certainly springs to mind. The Black Virgins are said to have any number of Pagan antecedents: the Magna Mater, Artemis, Aphrodite. Mary is often assocted with healing springs and grottos. The Black Virgins are often found buried or among vegetation. Their presence is often signaled by the strange comportment of animals, especially bovines.

Isis seems to have absorbed many local goddesses as her cult spread.  Certain Hellenic images are virtually indistingishable from images of Mary and Jesus.  We're not speaking of the original Egyptian Isis but her much later Hellenized and Romanized Mystery Religion versions.  So it's hard to say which iconography influenced which; some Marial-looking depictions of Isis may have been based on Christian models.  Of course, Mary is rarely pictured actually nursing, as with Isis Lactans, but Honoré Daumier pictured the Marianne, who we have linked to the Virgin, doing just that in Marianne Généreuse (1848).

What's next?

Theres definitely a lot more to go into.  This is just a catalogue, a brief survey of things I've been thinking about and looking into.  A lot could be said about the ideal woman of the Troubadours, the historical situation of women in Languedoc as opposed to France and other depictions in art but that might be better left for another post.  This one's gotten long eough already!

"At half past two ate a devil'd kidney"

Our title there first appeared in 1800, but the word "devil" as applied to food was in print as early as 1786. Basically it refers to highly season'd meat (Straight Dope).

When I was a kid I ate a lot of Underwood's devil'd ham, and I always lov'd the logo. The product dates back to 1868, and past logos were a little less jaunty.

Anyway, given I've posted on "Lucifer" brands before, I thought I'd point this out.

Are we being play'd for suckers by the Prince of Darkness?

(Menacing chortle).

Ho ho! Underwood, the devil's minions, also produces Joan of Arc beans. Their website

Joan of Arc was an amazing woman – she lived and died for her beliefs. We think Joan would have been proud of the beans that bear her name.

What would the Front National think?

(Puzzled expression).