The Virgin Of The Sacred Heart Analysis

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Allegories by Delacroix are rare. If the Liberty Leading the People remains the most famous, the Virgin of the Sacred Heart (Fig.1), the most enigmatic, disappeared in Corsica for one century. In 1981, Jack Spector related its story as originally commissioned to Géricault, and tried to find why Nantes, its destination , rejected it. This article is prompted by the discovery of new document highlighting another title of the Virgin of the Sacred Heart, also known as a Triumph of Religion. It explains why the commission was rejected by Nantes to be sent to Ajaccio, and gives a new hypothesis on its signification. In the second part, the matter of its perception before its restoration will be analyzed. Indeed, this one, made in 1988, revealed an…show more content…
Indeed, Gabriel Lantivy, the prefect of Corsica, on the island since 1824, has required the government a master painting for the Ajaccio Cathedral. This one arrived on February17th 1827, and the official announcement published in Corsica is revealing: “Ce tableau représente le triomphe de la religion : celle-ci, sous la figure d’une femme, est représentée assise sur un nuage. Son bras gauche entoure une croix, sa main droite, qu’elle porte en avant tient un cœur. Parmi les anges qui se jouent autour d’elle on en remarque deux qui se tiennent embrassés, sans doute pour indiquer que le christianisme est une religion d’union et de paix .” Thus, for the first time, the subject is no longer a Virgin with a Sacred Heart, but the triumph of Religion symbolized by a woman seated on a cloud. Then, a long exegesis follows: no Virgin and no Sacred Heart are mentioned. Especially, the three enigmatic figures in the lower part of the composition are meaningful. The bearded old man with a book in his hand is a thinking philosopher: he symbolizes the intellectual reception of the Christian revelation by civilized people. The young couple on the right symbolizes Barbarian’s nations freed from slavery, but frightened by the apparition of Religion . This exegesis of the Virgin of the Sacred Heart can give us indications about the real
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