Tombeau du général Bonchamps, Memorial tomb in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil Abbey, France.
The Tombeau de Bonchamps is a white marble memorial by Pierre-Jean David d'Angers, installed in 1825 in the church of Saint-Florent-le-Vieil. The dying general reclines half-nude on a draped slab, right arm raised, above a black sarcophagus inscribed "BONCHAMPS" and "MORT LE XVIII OCT. M.DCC.XC.III". The band beneath him reads "GRACE AUX PRISONNIERS !" with the names Thouars, Torfou and Cholet, flanked by two standing draped figures.
General Charles de Bonchamps, mortally wounded at the battle of Cholet on 17 October 1793, was carried to Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, where on 18 October he ordered the pardon of some 5,000 Republican prisoners held there. In 1817 friends of the general commissioned the monument from Pierre-Jean David d'Angers; the marble was shown at the Paris Salon of 1824 and inaugurated in the church in July 1825.
The inscription "GRACE AUX PRISONNIERS !" on the marble records the pardon Bonchamps granted on 18 October 1793 to 5,000 Republican prisoners held at Saint-Florent-le-Vieil. The monument was inaugurated in July 1825, and the sculptor David d'Angers was among those whose own father had been spared.
The tomb stands inside the church of Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, next to the abbey, so access follows the church's own opening hours rather than a separate ticket. The monument is set against the wall of the nave, and the marble can be examined from close range on foot. The raised ground above the Loire concerns the abbey site, not the sculpture itself.
David d'Angers saw the Ilissos figure from the Parthenon's west pediment in London in 1815 and reused its reclining pose for Bonchamps; the general's leonine hair recalls portraits of Alexander the Great. The marble was shown at the 1824 Salon before being installed in the church and inaugurated in July 1825.
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