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
daughter, declaring “Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life” (73). Though he is subtly begging Hester to release his secret into the village and is indirectly giving her permission to do so, Dimmesdale knows she will not, and takes part in contributing to her shame despite deserving it himself