Louis-Ernest Barrias and modern allegories on technology

While traditional allegories, long used as devices in art to make abstract ideas tangible, fell out of favor in the late nineteenth century, new allegorical forms, for innovative technologies and newly-harnessed powers, such as electricity, light and sound, began to be created by contemporary artists of the era. Louis Ernest Barrias (18411905) was at the forefront of this development at the fin-de-siècle, and his sculptures, "Electricity" (1889) and "Nature unveiling herself before science" (1899), bring together the traditional allegorical system with a new interest in glorifying modern technologies. In this article, modern allegories of the fin-de-siècle are linked to the emphasis on technology and the machine seen in later Art Deco sculpture. [Publication Abstract]