There are no public monuments of Marquis de Sade in France as he was declared persona non grata. In his artwork, Alexander Nikolayevich Burganov departed from the writer’s scandalous image and instead focused on the writer’s personality and curious aspects of his biography, apart from his infamous provocative behavior. The sculptor created a portrait of a person with a difficult fate, an important figure in French philosophical and cultural life.
Marquis de Sade
I depicted him as a libertine, with his arms folded, proudly setting himself apart from society. The figurative portrait is locked in a cage, symbolizing the life’s circumstances that one faces and must overcome. This metaphor reflects public opinion and fiction surrounding the writer whose name gave birth to a common noun. It also explores the genius and madness of a writer, the bravado of an aristocrat, and the helplessness of a defamed individual.
I designed the sculpture of the Marquis de Sade at the request of Pierre [Cardin]. He said that he would like such a collaboration. I understand that this was a tribute to the castle’s history — there are a lot of castles of those times in the commune of Lacoste near the city of Avignon.
Marquis de Sade
