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Art

Victory and palms

Victoire; palme

Victoire with its crown and palms is a personified allegorical figure in Gamelin’s drawing, not an ordinary victorious woman.

From the book

The Gods Are Athirst

Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Meaning

Related words and phrases.

Victoire with its crown and palms is a personified allegorical figure in Gamelin’s drawing, not an ordinary victorious woman. He wishes her arms themselves could become palms, preferring pure emblem to a figure holding an attribute. Meanwhile his family needs concrete assistance, and the Tribunal has impaired his actual drawing practice. The juxtaposition permits an interpretation of abstraction overtaking attention without making his artistic sentence a literal political programme.

Places to read

  1. Chapter XVIII, paragraph 59Frenchune Victoire déposant une couronne: a Victory laying a crown. Gamelin sketches the personification over a dead soldier.
  2. Chapter XVIII, paragraph 67Frenchses bras eux-mêmes fussent des palmes: her arms themselves were palms. His desired change fuses body and emblem.