Gloria Victis

Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercié

National Gallery of Art

A winged woman has hoisted a young, muscular man up and across one shoulder in this freestanding bronze statue. In this view, the woman runs toward us, her back foot lifted, as she wraps her arms around the man’s thighs. She looks off to our left, her hair swept up. Long, narrow wings slice into the space behind her. Her chest and shoulders are covered with gold armor, and drapery swirls around her legs. The man is nearly nude, covered only with a cloth across his groin. His arms are flung wide, one reaching high in the air and the other holding a broken sword by the woman’s shoulder. His head lolls to one side, his lips parted. A laurel branch lies at the woman’s foot on a small mound textured like a rock. An inscription on the front rim of the base reads “GLORIA VICTIS.”