In the context of Lady Tholose, explore the History and tribulations of the A Renaissance bronze.
In 1529, the "image carver" Jean Rancy sculpted a wooden statue of a child representing St. Michael, which was gilded and then placed on the roof of the city's Archives Tower (now called the "Capitole Keep") to serve as a weathervane.In 1544, this child figure was so damaged that the capitouls commissioned the same Jean Rancy for another statue: Lady Tholose. If the wooden model was made as early as 1544 by Rancy, for lack of money it was not until 1550 that the gunner Claude Peilhot proceeded to cast the bronze in the forges of the city's arsenal.Gilded with gold leaf and placed atop the Archives Tower, a symbolic place of the capitouls' power, Lady Tholose brandished a weathervane with its right arm and remained in place until 1829.At that time the roof of the tower was in danger of collapse and the statue had to be removed. In 1834 it was endowed with wings and crowns and, thus transformed into "Victory" or "Renown", was installed at the top of the colonne Dupuy to pay homage to the military successes of Dominique Martin Dupuy, a Napoleon's general born in Toulouse. As it rusted, the iron shaft that attached the statue to the column was the cause of the corrosion of its legs.In 2005 it was replaced on the column by a copy. Restored, it became part of the collections of the Musée des Augustins of Toulouse, where it is displayed nowadays.
In 2008 and 2009 it was one of the major pieces in the exhibition "Cast in Bronze: French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution" held successively in Paris, New York and Los Angeles.
Lady Tholose : from the Capitole Keep to the Augustins museum, passing by the Dupuy column
Musée des Augustins capitouls Capitole Toulouse Dominique Martin Dupuy Jean Rancy