{"id":74118,"date":"2023-05-23T10:32:24","date_gmt":"2023-05-23T08:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.levoyageanantes.fr\/oeuvres\/le-temps-dune-pause-allegorie-de-nantes\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T15:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:54:10","slug":"le-temps-dune-pause-allegorie-de-nantes","status":"publish","type":"oeuvre","link":"https:\/\/www.levoyageanantes.fr\/en\/artworks\/le-temps-dune-pause-allegorie-de-nantes\/","title":{"rendered":"Le temps d’une Pause – All\u00e9gorie de Nantes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Statue created by Gilles CUDEK and Maya ENEVA, sculptors in Nantes<\/p>\n

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Public statues can be found everywhere in our fair city. Whether they\u2019re standing tall in squares, parks, or on top of public buildings, they watch us and communicate the messages and values their makers had imbued them with. But what would happen if they left their pedestals and shook up the town?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olivier Texier devotes his time to drawing absurd illustrations and comics filled with bizarre and unreasonable characters. Armed with only a pencil and a battalion of sculptors, he plays a game of \u201ccopying\u201d some of our statues to a life-size scale of 1:1, thus freeing Generals Cambronne and Mellinet from their martial posturing. He also offers the feminine allegories of Nantes and the Loire a chance to come down from their monumental fountain in Place Royale and discover a city and river they\u2019ve been embodying for nearly 160 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<\/div><\/section>\n\t

All\u00e9gorie de Nantes (1865), Place Royale<\/h2>

Daniel Ducommun du Locle, marbre<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Towering over the monumental fountain in Place Royale, which symbolizes Nantes\u2019 river and maritime vocation, this allegory of the city is represented upright in drapery, wearing a castle for a crown.<\/p>\n

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This is a statue of Amphitrite, the goddess of the sea, who would normally be recognizable by the bronze trident of her husband Poseidon\/Neptune that she once held in her right hand.<\/p>\n

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Today, the trident is missing after first being stolen by a student in May 1968, then replaced many times by copies until 2007, when it was permanently removed following yet another theft that left the statue\u2019s hand broken. In her left hand, Amphitrite clutches a caduceus, also known as a Staff of Hermes, in reference to the city\u2019s motto: \u201cMay Neptune favour the traveller.\u201d<\/p>\n

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