Allegory of the Maréchal de Villars’s Victory at Denain 1806

Louis Simon Boizot created this bronze sculpture, *Allegory of the Maréchal de Villars’s Victory at Denain,* in France in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. It embodies the intersection of artistic patronage, political power, and the visual language of neoclassical allegory. The sculpture commemorates Marshal Villars's victory at the Battle of Denain in 1712. Its visual codes rely on classical imagery to glorify military achievement. Winged figure represents Fame, while the draped woman is an allegorical figure of Victory. Boizot draws upon established traditions of representing power and victory, but does so within the social and institutional context of his time. To fully understand this work, we must turn to various archives: records of state patronage that commissioned the piece, biographical information about its creator, and details of the cultural values it reflects. The history of art is the history of power, expressed through cultural forms.