The current iconoclastic moment in the U.S. has taken an odd turn here in the city of St. Louis. As protesters across the nation tear down or deface statues of Confederate generals and American founders who owned slaves (among others), the statue that has drawn the most attention in St. Louis is one depicting a medieval man who did not know that America existed.
The Apotheosis of St. Louis is a massive equestrian statue inspired by the city’s namesake, King Louis IX, who ruled France from 1226 until 1270. It portrays the king seated on his horse and adorned in a Romantic imagining of a triumphant Crusader’s garb. In 1764, the French founders of the city of St. Louis gave it that name to honor their king, Louis XV, and his patron saint.
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