The Virgin Of The Sacred Heart Critical Analysis

Allegories by Delacroix are rare. If the Liberty Leading the People remains the best known, the most enigmatic, the Virgin of the Sacred Heart (Fig.1), was lost in Corsica during one century. However, in 1981, Jack Spector related the story of this one, originally commissioned to Géricault, and tried to find an explanation about its reject by Nantes, its destination . Thus, this article is prompted by the discovery of new document highlighting another title of the Virgin of the Sacred Heart, also known as a Triumph of the Religion. Indeed, it explains why the commission was rejected by Nantes to be sent to Ajaccio, and gives a new hypothesis about its meaning. Then, on the second part, the matter of its perception before its restoration will be analyzed. Indeed, this one, made in 1988, revealed an unknown colour.

Why did Delacroix paint the commission attributed to Géricault? As noted by Spector, the conditions of the arrangement are known by Clément’s book . However, since the chronology established by Bruno Chenique and published in 1991, we know that there was another commission for Géricault from another ministry. Nevertheless, Géricault did not paint it too, and it was officially transferred to Horace Vernet. This one came from the Ministry of the Maison du roi,

Is it really because he receives the Christian revelation by an intellectual way, as indicated by the official exegesis? One of the Delacroix’s sketches could solve the riddle: it is the only one where a bearded man turns also his back on the Virgin, taking his head like to think. Originally entitled Our-Lady-of-the-Seven-Sorrows (Fig.7), Robaut considered it was not a Lady of Seven-Sorrows, but a Consolatrix afflictorum . However, could not it be an allegorical version of the Seven-Sorrows? Indeed, during the nineteenth century, the lost painting referred frequently as a Lady of Sorrows, as related by Villot