"Fairwell to the swallows" - The Venus
By Félix-Maurice Charpentier (1893)
  
This late XIXth century monument is made of a rocky artificial islet on which is set a muse nude.
Fairwell to the swallows, cast in 1893, was produced by Charpentier in 1894 at the French artist exhibit.
Praised by the press, this is what was written about it in the French newspaper "Le Figaro" : "We cannot dream of more elegance and lightness - Her feminine grace, with the one of the bird, spreads an unspeakable charm in her presence"
The mayor of Avignon, Mr de Boisserin Pouquery, acquired this masterpiece for his town eventhough Mr Leygues, Secretary of states, coveted it for his hometown, Villeneuve-sur-lot
Erected first in August 1894, Carnot square, the presence of this nude Venus near the St Pierre church caused an uproar and Father Dumas, the priest of St Pierre opened a petition requesting its removal.
"I protest against the setup of an indecent statue that sacrilegious hands erected last night at the foot of our church!"
The next night, the statue was travestied, and almost pushed to the ground. So the mayor decided to move the statue to the "Rocher des Doms" garden but not without pointing first to Father Dumas that some of the italian church paintings were also quite naked!
She was finally set up on August 7, 1884 in the middle of the pond of the "Jardin des Doms", just underneath the "Notre dame des Doms" cathedral.
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