Allegory of the Maréchal de Villars’s Victory at Denain

Allegory of the Maréchal de Villars’s Victory at Denain

Louis Simon Boizot

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This composition, first cast with Napoleon's head, was originally designed to celebrate the French victory at Austerlitz. After the emperor's downfall and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814, the bronze sculptor Thomire reconfigured the group with the head of the maréchal de Villars in order to represent the great ancien régime strategist's victory over the Austrians at the 1712 battle of Denain (War of the Spanish Succession).

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Allegory of the Maréchal de Villars’s Victory at DenainAllegory of the Maréchal de Villars’s Victory at DenainAllegory of the Maréchal de Villars’s Victory at DenainAllegory of the Maréchal de Villars’s Victory at DenainAllegory of the Maréchal de Villars’s Victory at Denain

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.