Who were Marianne and Germania ? What was the importance of the way in which they were portrayed ?
Answer: In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, artists represented the country as if it were a person.
Nations were portrayed as female figures that sought to give the abstract idea of the nation a concrete form.
The female form that was chosen to personify the nation did not stand for any particular woman in a real life.
Thus, in France, she was christened Marianne, a popular Christian name, which underlined the idea of a people’s nation.
Her characteristics were drawn from those of liberty and the Republic – the red cap, the tricolour, the cockade.
Statues of Marianne were installed in public squares to remind the public of the national symbols of unity and to persuade them to identify with it.
Marianne images were marked on coins and stamps too.
Similarly, Germania became the allegory of the German nation. In visual representations, Germania wears a crown of oak leaves, because the German oak stands for heroism.
The importance of the way in which they were portrayed was to remind the public of their national symbols of unity and to persuade them to identify with them.Additional Information
CBSE NCERT Class 10 History (Chapter 1)
The Rise Of Nationalism In Europe
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