Colonne de Juillet op de Place de la Bastille in Parijs c. 1880 - 1900

Louis Antoine Pamard captured the Colonne de Juillet in Paris with photography. It is a monument crowned by a winged figure of Liberty, a classical motif adopted by the French Revolution. Consider the Victory column, a form stretching back to antiquity, exemplified by Trajan's Column in Rome. The imagery of triumph and power has been a recurrent theme, but here, on the Place de la Bastille, it speaks of a victory not of emperors but of the people. The figure of Liberty carries echoes of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, embodying aspirations for freedom and self-determination. Yet, here it stands, a complicated image of the July Revolution, and the subconscious drives behind violent uprisings, forever imprinted in the city’s collective psyche. Note how the symbol of winged victory, once a symbol of military conquest, has been transformed into a representation of liberty, a testament to the cyclical nature of symbols resurfacing with new meanings in the course of history.