The Soldier of Marathon Announces Victory at the Louvre, Paris by Scan The World

Description

After the Greeks' first victory over the Persians at Marathon, a soldier ran more than forty kilometers to Athens to announce the news. Having delivered his message, he died of exhaustion. Cortot chose to depict the moment when the weary soldier collapses. In a final burst of pride, he raises his chest and brandishes the palm of victory aloft. At Marathon in 490 BC the Greeks first defeated the Persians. The Persian army of King Darius I had disembarked near Marathon, but judging the place unfavorable to military maneuvers, began to re-embark. Miltiades, leader of the outnumbered Greek troops, decided it was the right moment to attack the Persian army. Legend claims that a soldier ran all the way to Athens to announce the Greek victory, then collapsed and died of exhaustion. This has since given birth to the famous marathon race. The Soldier of Marathon was the epitome of the virtuous hero who sacrificed himself for the glory of his homeland, a theme that had been very fashionable in France since the late 18th century. Cortot presented a plaster model of the work at the Salon of 1822. In 1831 Louis-Philippe, who had recently acceded to the throne, commissioned the marble. It was part of a series of commissions illustrating the glories of antiquity, including numerous heroes celebrated for their courage, their devotion to patriotic or civic duty, and their stoicism, including Philopoemen by David d'Angers and Cato of Utica by Jean-Baptiste Roman, both in the Louvre. Shown at…