Representing one of the "four parts of the world" and a masterpiece in Louis XIV's large order of marble sculptures commanded in 1674 for the park of the Château de Versailles, the allegorical and stylized female American Indian personifies the new French colony of Louisiana. Entitled l'Amérique, the sculpture, complete with a decapitated head and alligator at her feet, underscore the 17th-century European perception of the New World's dangerousness. The sculpture has been replaced by a copy, the original having been removed to the lower gallery of the Château for safekeeping.
Vocabulary
un pagne: a loincloth
un carquois: a quiver
une flèche: an arrow
la dangerosité: dangerousness
Expression
Vider son carquois: to lance short, clever or paradoxical sayings, not to be confused with "vider son sac" which means to get something off one's chest
©2015 P.B. Lecron
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