Peace
Antoine-Denis Chaudet (1763-1810) · 1806
A seated woman in classical dress gleams in solid silver, an olive branch in one hand, while a gilded horn of plenty overflowing with fruit stands at her side. She is Peace, and the metal itself is the message: a state monument cast in silver, a material more often reserved for church plate than for sculpture. The signature on the base records the collaboration in Latin, Chaudet sculpted it, Cheret cast it in silver, Vivant Denon directed, in the year 1806. Look at the contrast between the cool white metal of the figure and the gold of the cornucopia and the accessories.
The statue was born of the Peace of Amiens signed with Britain on 27 March 1802. When the Senate made Napoleon Bonaparte consul for life that August, it decreed a statue of Peace holding the laurel of Victory and the Senate's decree. A competition produced nothing the jury liked, so the minister Chaptal gave the commission to Chaudet in November 1802. By the time it was finished the peace had long since collapsed. The statue stood in the Tuileries palace and was moved to the Louvre on 1 March 1871, weeks before the palace burned.
Did You Know? A statue celebrating peace with Britain was finished in 1806, three years after the two countries were back at war.
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