Sketch for the ceiling of the paleontology amphitheatre at the Paris Museum of Natural History:...

Sketch for the ceiling of the paleontology amphitheater at the Museum d'histoire naturelle de Paris: Les Races humaines (Plafond) (Main title); Scène de bataille (plafond) (Old title (obsolete)) Cormon, Fernand (Fernand-Anne Piestre, known as) The allegorical ceiling, composed in an ascending spiral, depicts the procession of various races emerging from ancient times, advancing towards civilization and progress. At the bottom of the painting, a prehistoric family follows the procession of armored men and horsemen as they make their way towards a luminous sky. The painter gives his procession an ideological significance. The upward movement towards "civilization and light" is led by what he refers to as the Aryan races. This vision, with its Wagnerian lyricism, is part of the colonialist and antidreyfusard context of the last years of 19th-century France. Inventory number: PDUT1396