The Entombment of Atala (Salon of 1808). Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson (French, 1767-1824
The Entombment of Atala (Salon of 1808). Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson (French, 1767-1824). Oil on canvas. Musée du Louvre.“Whosoever had not known that this young maiden had once enjoyed the light of day would have taken her for a statue of virginity asleep,” wrote François René Chateaubriand of Atala in 1801. With a crucifix clutched in her hand and the drapery of her dress clinging to her bust, Atala is both pure and sensual. A verse from the Book of Job is carved on the cave wall: “When it is yet in flower, and is not plucked with the hand, it withereth before all herbs.” -- source link
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