Detail View: The AMICA Library: Une rosière pleurant la mort de son fondateur et montrant l'image de son coeur

AMICA ID: 
CMA_.2002.53
AMICA Library Year: 
2003
Object Type: 
Sculpture
Creator Name: 
Delaistre, François-Nicolas
Creator Nationality: 
French
Creator Role: 
artist
Creator Dates/Places: 
1746 - 1832
Gender: 
M
Creator Name-CRT: 
François-Nicolas Delaistre
Title: 
Figure of a Young Girl
Title Type: 
Primary
Title: 
Une rosière pleurant la mort de son fondateur et montrant l'image de son coeur
Title Type: 
Foreign
View: 
Detail
Creation Date: 
1787-1793
Creation Start Date: 
1787
Creation End Date: 
1793
Materials and Techniques: 
marble
Classification Term: 
Sculpture
Style or Period: 
France, Paris, 18th century
Dimensions: 
Overall: 170cm x 85.4cm x 49.5cm
AMICA Contributor: 
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Owner Location: 
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
ID Number: 
2002.53
Credit Line: 
The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Rights: 
Provenance: 
(Alain Moatti, Paris)
Context: 
Delaistre created this sculpture for a funeral monument commissioned by the Marquis Gallyotde Tourny for himself and erected in the chapel of his chateau of La Falaise between 1787 and 1793. The young woman gestures with her left hand toward an urn bearing the inscription Voila ce coeur qui nous a tant aimé (Here is the heart which has loved so many of us).The sculpture follows a pattern that had become customary for such monuments in the last quarter of the century, with a single female figure dominating the design. Usually that figure was of an allegorical or religious subject. However, the Marquis gave very precise instructions that she should instead be a rosière, a virtuous young woman chosen from the general population and awarded a garland of roses-hence the name given to the honoree. Saint Medard initiated this ceremony in ad 530, but when revived by the Marquis in the 18th century, it was seen both as a reward of virtue and a symbol of a growing sympathy for democracy-the rosière was customarily a girl of rather humble circumstances, not an aristocrat.
Related Image Identifier Link: 
CMA_.2002.53det01.tif