Gloria Victis

Gloria Victis ("glory to the vanquished") is a sculpture by Antonin Mercié. Created in 1874 as pictured is seen at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Mercié designed this sculpture following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. He intended to honor those French soldiers who had fallen in the conflict, especially his friend, the artist Henri Regnault (1843-1871). Upon France's defeat Mercié changed the hero's head from lifted to fallen.

A winged female allegorical image of Fame (or of Hope) carries to glory a dying French hero, his broken sword a sign of defeat. Mercié's original plaster sculpture won a medal at the 1874 Paris Salon. Bronze copies were cast in different sizes by the great foundry of Ferdinand Barbedienne.