Allegory of Religion - France 17th century

This marble bas-relief depicting an Allegory of the Christian Religion is typical of the 17th-century French School style.
The figure is a woman, the top of whose head is covered by a veil revealing her wavy hair. Her face is rendered in the antique style, with its aquiline nose, wide, pupiless eyes, slightly half-open mouth and sculpted chin. Although her body is facing us, her head is turned to the right, but her neck remains straight. The figure wears a thin garment, glued to her body, revealing her navel and round breasts, which nevertheless ends in heavy, dense folds.
Seeming to be almost seated, the figure moves her left leg, which she bends, to place her foot on a mound. Her right leg, too, bends in a lighter gesture to the right. Her right foot extends beyond the frame of the bas-relief, symbolizing the artist's refinement.
The figure's left arm twists in a serpentine, impossible movement, supporting a long, straight cross.
His right arm is raised, bent, and his hand is holding two keys, linked by a strap, on which is a bird, possibly a dove, with carved feathers.
Although the work's symbolism is obvious, it remains complex to identify precisely. The attributes worn by the female figure (the cross, the two keys and the bird) are polysemous and can be found in many allegories, but it is quite rare to depict them together.
The cross represents Christ's Crucifixion. It is an important symbol of the Church and Christianity. It is depicted in scenes linked to Christ's Passion, as well as in allegories relating to the Church, Religion and Faith.
The two keys are those given by Christ to St. Peter in the Gospel according to Matthew (16:19), where Jesus declares: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven". Two keys are then handed over: one made of gold (heavenly), the other of silver (earthly).
The dove embodies the Holy Spirit. Present in several passages of the Bible, the dove is a symbol of hope and faithfulness when it is sent by Noah to warn of the end of the Flood (Genesis, chapter 8). In the New Testament, the dove is used to represent the Holy Spirit, present at the moment of Jesus' baptism: "He saw the heavens being torn apart and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. A voice came from heaven: 'You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased'" (Gospel of Mark, 1, 10-11). A symbol of Christianity, the dove, as the manifest form of the Holy Spirit, is a messenger of divine love.
Thus, the three attributes present in this bas-relief are well-known symbols of Christianity.
From the second half of the 16th century onwards, religious representations, encouraged by the Council of Trent, took on a didactic, instructive and intellectual scope, intended to foster devotion among the faithful. Thus, some religious works of this period accentuate the emotion surrounding the martyrdom of the Saints and the Passion of Christ, while others respond to an intellectual and doctrinaire trend. The Allegory presented here can be linked to this second trend, a consequence of the Council of Trent, which was to have repercussions on the arts until the 17th century.
Our work can be compared with certain bas-reliefs of the 17th-century French school.
François Girardon's bas-relief of an Allegorical Figure, known as "La Mélancolie", has a number of similarities with our work: the attitude of the figure, the draping of the dress, the foot protruding from the frame of the sculpture, the raised hand.
Or in this bas-relief of an Allegory of Faith, attributed to Louis Le Conte and kept at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille, where we find the foot protruding from the frame, the thin drape revealing the figure's navel, and the right cross.
And finally, in this bas-relief by Jean Hardy, representing Religion striking down Heresy, painted in 1688 and now in the Musée du Louvre.