HD photographs of Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph and Baby Jesus Statue group inside Eglise Saint-Roch - Page 1093
We were at the Eglise Saint-Roch in the 1st Arrondissement of Paris, when we took these high definition photos showing a statue group called Nativite, which was sculpted by Michel Anguier.
Paris Statues
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Here you can see an historical statue group called Nativite, which in English translates to Nativity, and comprised of three individual statues, this represents the Holy Family of the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph and Jesus Christ shortly after his birth, that was originally commissioned by Queen Anne of Austria on 25th March 1665
Originally the Nativity scene was commissioned to adorn the high altar of the Eglise du Val-de-Grace and the church was then dedicated to the glory of Jesus rising and to the Virgin Mother, in gratitude for the long awaited birth of the future King Louis XIV, and this impressive group was sculpted in Carrara marble that comes from quarries in a place in Italy with the same name, which was the preferred choice of material for sculptors at that time.
The Nativite was produced by Michel Anguier was born in 1612 and was the younger brother of the sculptor Francois Anguier and both furthered their studies on Rome, and when Michel Anguier returned to Paris, France he became the most recognised out of the two, receiving many commissions including decorating the private apartments for Anne of Austria at the Palais du Louvre, along with this statue group, which is classed as his masterpiece.
Here you can see a close up photograph showing baby Jesus placed on a modest table sheltering the tabernacle, with Jesus revealing his divine nature, and according to an original iconography, Michel Anguier depicted the child removing the cloth from himself, rather than being revealed by the Virgin, which was put pride of place within the Val-de-Grance Church on 5th September 1668 along with the statues of Mary and Joseph, where it remained for over a century.
However, the Eglise du Val-de-Grace was close in 1790 and all of the decorations and furniture were dispersed, and the Enfant Jesus entered the Musee des Monuments Francais on 7th April 1795, followed by the statues of La Vierge and Saint Joseph on 28th May 1796, prior to then being attributed to the Eglise Saint-Roch after numerous statuary had been destroyed during the French Revolution.
The first statue of the Nativity to arrive at the Saint-Roch Church was that of Saint Joseph on 28th March 1805, which was then followed by the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ on 6th May 1805, where they were then positioned on the high alter of the Chapel of the Virgin, which is where they remain today underneath the Divine Glory sculpture, that you can also see in this photo.
So here you can see the tourist information board relating to the Nativite that was produced in conjunction with the famous Louvre Museum and provides more information about the Carrera marble statue group that was classed as an historical monument on 20th February 1905.
However, the story of this impressive statue group does not end there, because the Val-de-Grace Church that was transformed into a military hospital during the French Revolution was restored and made back into a church, and they requested the return of The Nativity from the Eglise Saint-Roch, yet the successor to Claude Marie Marduel, the Paris Priest Nicolas Theodore Olivier, refused to relinquish Nativite.
And therefore Napoleon III ordered an exact copy of the Nativity statue group in 1869 for the Eglise du Val-de-Grace, but the original historical monument by Michel Anguier can still be seen in all its splendour within La Chapelle de la Vierge at the Eglise Saint-Roch, which is located on the Rue Saint-Honore in the 1st Arrondissement of Paris.
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