Female figures become an allegory of the
nation during the nineteenth century in
Europe in the following ways:
(1) Artists, in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, often made efforts to represent
a country as if it were a person. Female
figures were chosen to express an
abstract idea of a nation. These female
figures, thus, became an allegory of the
nation.
(2) In France, the female figure was christened
Marianne, which was characterised by
liberty and the republic through the red
cap, the tricolour and the cockade. Statues
of Marianne stood in public squares to
remind people of the national symbol of
unity.
(3) In Germany, the female figure -
Germania - became the allegory of the
German nation. In visual representations,
Germania wore the crown of oak leaves,
as the German oak stood for heroism.
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