Browse Items (66 total)

http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/files/original/febbe65012049efe961e90e7cf3c2130.jpg

1793-1794

To contemporaries who subscribed to the Enlightenment, the term "reason" was to be contrasted to superstition. Even though Christians, too, believed in reason, they also wanted to make room for the possibility of God’s intervention, particularly in…
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/files/original/3f46b0192de1c836c2e098c3a3a59d91.jpg

1793-1794

Using a woman to represent "Fraternity" seems ironic at best, although theoretically the term might mean the community of humanity. In actuality, when the revolutionaries considered "community," they certainly thought of men far more than women. The…
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/files/original/bcd70041216c1d07cc8c7c4361bc8c40.jpg

1793-1794

At the beginning of the Revolution, the term "equality" meant an end to the legal differences that had characterized the Old Regime. For example, all individuals would be subject to the same regimen of taxation. Over the course of the decade,…
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/files/original/3acfbc241c7ed8faad1081b47aeca35f.jpg

1793-1794

Even before the Revolution, the French had used a woman in a toga to symbolize liberty. By July 1789 this symbol had become quite common and would only grow more familiar over the revolutionary decade. Generally the female Liberty was a poised…
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/files/original/5e05c71ad54359b51f466f576ef2c4b3.jpg

1796

In this engraving of the Festival of Reunion or Unity of 10 August 1793, a female statue of Nature in the form of the Egyptian goddess Isis represents the regeneration of the French people. It sits on the site of the Bastille prison, whose fall…
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/files/original/e7f9b59088f9cc30f5b652e7b2e9a653.jpg

1793

This cartoon by the popular British caricaturist James Gillray depicts the British politician Charles James Fox as a sans–culotte. Wearing a cockade in his wig and a bandage on his forehead, the unshaven Fox raises his bloody left hand as he lifts…
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/files/original/db61fb947cfdf2b8b6e58c068ba5a866.jpg

This sword, an actual artifact of the revolutionary wars, shows how strongly French officers and soldiers believed themselves to be fighting for the defense of liberty, which is represented by the woman holding the balance and by the Phrygian bonnet…
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/files/original/adad7ab41e3dc8eb73b0acb0ce9ada7b.jpg

1789

This allegorical image represents the sentiments of social unity that the National Assembly sought to promote through the Festival of the Federation of 14 July 1790. This festival, though technically but a military parade of units from around the…
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/files/original/a35ba1bfe676a569026b16e9d1503568.jpg

1789

This print depicts the Third Estate—represented by the peasant at the rear of the chariot, the worker leading the horse, and the merchant driving—delivering to the National Assembly a petition listing "abuses" to be remedied.
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/files/original/6da6a63dd25b701326b542e6b8fa8ca0.jpg

This image of the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen includes a fascinating mix of symbols. By arranging the articles on tablets, the artist clearly meant to associate this document with Moses’ Ten Commandments. Such a link could establish the…
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