Laurent louis midart: le réveil du suisse (“the awakening of the swiss”), colored etching, 1798, kunstmuseum solothurn. Text: le suisse après ses victoires se reposa si long-temps sur ses lauriers qu'il s'y endormit. Pendant son sommeil sesarmes se gâterent, ses forçes s'engourdirent – the chant du coq le reveille. A new soleil l'eclaire. The liberation of the new generation of arms with the sources of the universe that encores the vertus and the value of its predecessors. («after his victories, the swiss rested on his laurels for so long that he fell asleep on them. During his sleep, his weapons deteriorated, his strength froze - the song of the rooster awakens him. A new sun illuminates him, freedom gives him new weapons, with which he will soon show the whole world that he still has the virtues and prestige of his ancestors. ») the picture celebrates the revolutionary transformation of the old swiss confederacy into the helvetic republic in 1798. It shows a swiss man in medieval costume who awakens from his sleep (a symbol of absolutist abuses) and is handed his weapons by the genius of freedom. The hat feathers show the colors of the helvetic republic, the hem of the genius's robe those of the french republic. In the background, a rising sun and the crowing gallic rooster herald the new era. Date: 1798.
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