Allegorical Victory of the Grand Condé

Robert Guillaume Dardel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The year 1786 was the centenary of the death of Louis II de Bourbon, prince de Condé, the illustrious warrior of the Louis XIV period known to all as the Grand Condé. His descendant, the eighth prince de Condé, commissioned decorations to honor his forebear. The eighth prince allotted this subject – winged Victory awarding the palm to a wounded hero in agony – to his favorite sculptor, the talented Robert-Guillaume Dardel. Modeled for a statuary group that was evidently never realized, the terracotta's Baroque flourishes pay homage to the epoch of the Grand Condé.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art