The Great Hall Painting; or, Does Anyone Know Anything About This Artwork??

Back in April 1996, Volglory wrote to me concerning the intriguing painting in Lucard's Great Hall, "Does ANYONE know anything about this artwork??" At the time, I had no answer and no idea how to find one. As it happens, however, I did finally discover more about the image--and quite by chance, too. Observe below for yourself.

The image on the left, of course, is the familiar painting in the Great Hall (photographed from the TV); the image to the right (or below, if you have a low-resolution monitor) is a monument called the Memorial of Remembrance. It is located in the Place de la Constitution on Boulevard F.-D. Roosevelt in Luxembourg City. This memorial, an obelisk which is supported by a severe plinth carrying inscriptions and crowned by a guilded Goddess of War figure known as the "Gėlle Fra" ("Golden Lady" ), was erected in 1923 in memory of the Luxembourgish soldiers who fell during WWI. The phrase "Gėlle Fra" is used by the locals to describe not just the memorial itself, but also the Place de la Constitution square. In 1940, the monument was partially destroyed by the German occupiers. The Luxembourgers were able to rescue a few fragments from the Nazis, however, and partially rebuilt it at the end of WWII as a symbol of their newly won freedom. After further inscriptions were added and the Goddess of War was restored, the monument was again unveiled as the Memorial of Remembrance in 1985.

Of course, this leads us to the question of just why Lucard keeps a large painting of the Memorial of Remembrance figures in his Great Hall. Any wacky (or serious) theories are most welcome...

Lucard's Castle / Lucard's Home Page / lpetix@dpcc.com