The Enduring Symbols of Revolution:
The Emotional Connection to French Republican Art

History 2: Revolutions
December 15, 2011

Towards the end of the 18th century, Immanuel Kant and many other influential philosophers during the Enlightenment stated that people should be rational in their approach to life, including politics, economics, and society. Rationalism was one of the main themes of the Enlightenment, and it played an important role in the French Revolution. One aspect of rationalism that was important in the French Revolution were rational symbols of power. However, these rational symbols of power ultimately were disfavored in revolutionary France in favor of more enduring artistic symbols of the Revolution. Although the revolutionaries also sought to regenerate French society through rational symbols of power, their use of Roman, Greek and republican art, were the most enduring symbols of a new French society because of their stronger portrayal of liberty, fraternity and equality.
The rational symbols of power that the revolutionaries sought to introduce into French society included the revolutionary French Republican calendar, the revolutionary French Republican clock, and the metric system. For the reasons noted below, each of these symbols ultimately were not accepted in French society.
Even though the revolutionary French Republican calendar, one of the important rational symbols, did have a strong basis in reason, it lacked public support and was not enduring because of its weak connection with the new French society. The revolutionary calendar had its basis in the important themes of the Enlightenment. Because of this rational inspiration, it consisted of twelve months each with ten-day periods called decadés and started on the first day of the Republic, September 22, 1792. The French Republican calendar emerged because the revolutionaries wanted to get rid of anything that came from the Old Regime. As a result, they abolished the old calendar’s system of weeks. The website Liberty, Equality, Fraternity has an excerpt from a report filed by committee ordered to draft a new rational calendar in October 1793. It reads,
We could no longer count the years during which kings oppressed us as an era during which we had lived. The prejudices and lies of both the throne and the church sullied each page of the calendar we were using. You have reformed this calendar and replaced it with another where time is calculated in exact and symmetrical measurements. This is not sufficient... Long usage of the Gregorian calendar has filled the people's memory with a considerable number of images that they have long revered, and which today remain the source of their religious errors. It is therefore necessary to replace these visions of ignorance with the realities of reason, and this sacerdotal prestige with nature’s truth. We understand nothing except through images. In the most abstract analysis, in the most metaphysical combination of ideas, our understanding only progresses by means of images, our memory uses and depends on them. Therefore, if you want the methodology and cohesion of this calendar to easily be understood by the people, and to engrave itself rapidly in their memory, you must use images in you new calendar…

The new calendar was rational, yet it ultimately failed to gain acceptance. The 1793 French committee reported that people can best understand and connect to images and not simple numbers. As noted below, the proposed new calendar faced the stiff competition for the French citizens loyalty because, as the revolutionaries were trying to release the new calendar, enduring paintings, sculptures, and fictional leaders were materializing. This made it even harder for people to connect to a new calendar because of the emergence of these new and powerful artistic images and symbols. Moreover, an author for Napoleon.org states the calendar was very unwieldy because its first day of the year was on an irregular day. As a result, Napoleon abolished the revolutionary calendar in 1805. Historian Allistair Horne observed, “Here [Napoleon] was, of course, mindful of gaining the support of the monarchists for his future plans of continental conquest.” Napoléon abolished the calendar because his goal was to gain the support of the people and the calendar lacked popular support. Although the calendar represented rationality and elimination of the tyrannical government, it did not have the qualities that were needed to fully connect with the people and, as a result, was abolished.
Like the revolutionary calendar, the Revolutionary clock was also rational and simple, but was not able to capture the hearts and minds of revolutionary French society. It was on a base scale of 10, meaning that there were 10 hours per day, 100 minutes per hour, and 100 seconds per minute. An author for antique-horology.org declares, “Despite the efforts of some of the great horological minds the system was never really adopted and clockmakers had no real reason to fully support it because their Revolutionary clocks were useless outside France which ruined their export trade.” The Revolutionary clocks could not gain much acceptance because they were of no use outside of France. Furthermore, even though they were rationally based, the revolutionary clocks, like the revolutionary calendar, had no artistic basis, and provided no emotional connection for the French people. People, especially in times of revolution and change, connect to and respond to artistic and emotional symbols. The clock did not provide such connection. In fact, the clockmakers determined that the clock would not have any chance of being accepted and abandoned any real effort to make the new clock.
Another one of these very logical and straightforward adjustments to society that was not enduring during this period was the metric system. The metric system was rational in that larger and smaller multiples of each unit were to be created by multiplying or dividing the basic units by 10 and its powers.” It was a very logical and easy to use system because it was, like the clock, also on a base 10 system. This was far more rational than the other units of measurement common in France at the time, including measurements that were based on the human body (the digit, the hand, the cubit, etc.) and many other inconsistent and unwieldy units of measurement. The metric system provided “a great convenience to users of the system, by eliminating the need for such calculations as dividing by 16 (to convert ounces to pounds) or by 12 (to convert inches to feet).” The base 10 system made it easy for engineers and scientists to use, which, overall, helped with the speed of technological development. Yet, during this time, the metric system was disliked throughout France. Napoleon actually banned the metric system, just like the clock. He did this because of the majority of France’s dislike of the new system. Although very rational, the metric system met the same fate as the revolutionary calendar and revolutionary clock. It was doomed to fail because it did not capture the hearts and minds of the new French nation.
Unlike the rational symbols, the artistic symbols of the revolution captured the spirits and emotions of the French people, and became enduring symbols of the revolution’s themes of liberty, equality and fraternity. For example, the Greek and Roman Phrygian cap was enduring because of its use in republican art, which was able to connect with the French people. The Phrygian cap originally came from ancient Greece and Rome. Historian Yvonne Korshak says, “The Phrygian cap can be traced back to Greek art, in which it was used to represent the people of Phrygia, an ancient country in Asia Minor.” The Phrygian cap was not a new emerging symbol but based upon an ancient Greek cap that stood for the people. Korshak also says, “In ancient Rome, the manumission of a slave, a not uncommon event, was symbolized by the adoption of the pileus cap, the headgear of the working citizen, by the freed slave. The manumission ceremony, in which slaves being freed took on the cap and were touched by a rod... as a symbol of freedom granted... the cap developed its generalized suggestion of liberty.” The cap was very similar to the pileus cap from ancient Rome and during that time, it was a symbol for liberty. Therefore, the combined version of these two represents freedom of the people and during the time of the French Revolution, it represented exactly that. Lynn Hunt states, “replacing the king as the insignia of the official seal of the state was ‘a woman leaning with one hand on a fasces, holding in the other hand a lance topped by a liberty cap’... this seal became the seal for all branches of public administration.” The official seal of the Republic (See Appendix 1), which was free and run by the people, had a Phrygian cap on it. Thus, the Phrygian cap was a symbol that captured the truest essence of the French Revolution, and, as a result, was readily accepted and adopted by the French people. Furthermore, the cap connected with the people because of its often use in Revolutionary art. For example, the symbols in the painting, “The Triumph of Liberty-1790” (See Appendix 2) are described as “a formidable and powerful figure of liberty with her pike and cap.” Also, in “Un nouveau culte révolutionnaire : l'Être Suprême” (See Appendix 3), not only is the Phrygian cap used, the colors of the light coming from the sun give off a sense of hope and a new France. These paintings affected the people by giving them emotional feelings, influencing them, and connecting with them. It was lasting and enduring as a symbol of the new nation.
Very similar to the Phrygian cap, the Roman toga was also used in many examples of republican art and was an enduring representation because of its powerful delineation of liberty. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity notes, “The French had used a woman in a toga to symbolize liberty. By July 1789 this symbol had become quite common and would only grow more familiar over the revolutionary decade.” The toga portrayed freedom and actually became popular the month after the Oath of The Tennis Court in June 1793. After July that year, the toga was becoming more and more popular. For example, in “La Liberté” (See Appendix 4), a woman is wearing a toga. The toga, although only a type of clothing, with no rational value like that offered by the rational symbols of the revolution, nonetheless struck a chord with the French people and became an enduring symbol of French liberty.
Another image of the French Revolution was Hercules, an artistic symbol for liberty and the pulverization of tyranny. Looking at the painting, “The French People Overwhelming the Hydra of Federalism” (See Appendix 5), Lynn Hunt states that “The placement of Hercules relative to Liberty is particularly relevant… while he crushed the monster of federalism with the club in his other hand.” Thus, Hercules, representing liberty, crushes the monster of tyranny. Portraying federalism as a monster was important because the revolutionaries proclaimed that the federalism of France was evil, immoral, and corrupt. Therefore, if a federalist government is immoral and corrupt, it is a tyranny. Hunt also observes that “the representatives of the people established liberty when they punished Louis XVI for his crimes… protected the Republic against the monster of disunity and factionalism.” She conveys the monster as tyranny because she relates it to Louis XVI who, in fact, was a tyrant. Also, she says how Hercules, a representation of the people would protect them from inequality and strive for fraternity, which is the opposite of “factionalism”. Hercules, was an enduring symbol during that time. He was strong, powerful, and overall, a significant depiction of liberty, equality, and fraternity.
Similar to Hercules, Marianne, a fictional mother of France and an abiding symbol, was a strong representation for the liberty and power of the French people. Marianne replaced Hercules as a humanlike leader of France. In the seal of the Republic (1792) (See Appendix 1), Marianne stands tall and robust. She holds a pole with a Phrygian cap at the tip. Also, in her left hand she is holding fasces, which is a bundle of sticks tied to an axe. Both of these symbols relate to Marianne and how she represents liberty of the people. Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality says that “She holds the staff of authority; on top of it is the Phrygian cap of liberty[.]” They describe the painting, "La Liberté", where “Marianne,’ as she came to be known, [was] a feminine personification, or allegory, of liberty.” The way they say that Marianne was “a feminine personification” illustrates that she was humanlike and understandable. Also, they say that she was “known”, meaning that the people of France knew her well and had an emotional connection with her. Because of this, Marianne was a very lasting symbol of the French Revolution. Like the Phrygian cap, the toga, and Hercules, Marianne as an artistic symbol captured the spirit of, and connected with, the French people.
One could say that the artistic symbols endured because they were not new, but rather, based upon ancient symbols. The rational symbols were new and, maybe, therefore, harder to gain acceptance with the people. However, I think that misses the point. Not only was Marianne not ancient, but, more important, in a time of revolution, people look to connect with inspiring artistic works that they believe capture the essence of the change they just have brought. The Phrygian cap, the toga, Hercules and Marianne did exactly that, and the rational symbols did not capture the hearts and minds of the French at the time. These French renewals of the ancient Roman and Greek symbols established a connection and created emotions for people. Marianne was proof of this. She was a brand new representation of French freedom and strength. Overall, unlike the rational symbols, the symbols of Republican art truly inspired the French people and were the most enduring because of their portrayal of liberty, equality, and fraternity.