Blackwell Reference Online

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Since the French Revolution of 1789 , Marianne has been the name of a symbolic female in a red cap representing the liberty of the French nation. Historically, rightist governments have tended to deemphasize Marianne, while leftist governments have given her more prominence. Today's version depicts a youthful female wearing a red cap, sometimes with a tricolor sash or clothing. Borrowing from ancient Roman iconography, Liberty was depicted during the French Revolution allegorically as a female, usually wearing or carrying a red Phrygian cap. The inclusion of this cap has various possible origins. One is the common belief that freed slaves during Roman times wore the Phrygian cap, thus symbolizing Liberty. Another connects it to the 1675 Peasant Revolt in Brittany, also called the Revolt of the Red Bonnets because a red cap was the traditional headgear of Breton farmers. After abolishing the monarchy in 1792, the new Republic needed an official image. Formerly, the state had been identified with the ruling monarch's image, but the Republic was an abstract personification. A prominent republican clergyman, Abbé Gregoire, proposed that the state seal display the image of France as a woman dressed in Greco-Roman style, standing, and with “her right hand holding a pike surmounted by a Phrygian cap or cap of Liberty.” The name Marianne seems to have first been attached to the symbol ... log in or subscribe to read full text