ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 situates Antonin Mercié's Gloria Victis within the political, cultural, and aesthetic framework of the early French Third Republic. Rather than treating the sculpture as a spontaneous response to the Franco-Prussian War, it argues that Gloria Victis articulated a foundational visual language of Republican civil religion. This chapter traces the sculpture's movement from elite civic sites such as the Paris Flotel de Ville to its widespread monumental and commercial reproduction across France. By examining its use in diplomatic ceremonies, public rituals, and mass culture, this chapter demonstrates how Gloria Victis established a model for representing defeat as civic duty and sacrifice.
