On the outside, it is the monument of the people who carried through the greatest revolution for liberty ever known.

The glorification of man is there below in the column of the place Vendome.

Here there is nothing individual.

Its builders erected it to the memory of la Grande Armee and that Grand Army was the people in arms who spread revolution throughout Europe.

The artists, great inventors, foresaw the true significance of this work.
The warriors of Rude who are chanting the Marseillaise in the group at the left are not professional soldiers, they are armed citizens, marching to work out their sublime and violent mission.