Funerary Monument for the Marquis de Tourney (for the Chapel of the Château de la Falaise)

About this artwork

The Marquis Gallyot de Tourney commissioned this sculpture to serve as his funeral monument. It depicts a young woman gesturing with one hand toward an urn bearing the inscription Voilà ce coeur qui nous a tant aimé (Here is the heart that loved us so). The marquis specified that the figure should be a rosière, a virtuous woman of humble circumstances, a choice likely informed by the writings of Enlightenment philosophers, especially Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who championed greater social equality ...