Frenzy and prayer - Le Voeu de Clovis à la Bataille de Tolbiac, by Joseph Blanc, the Panthéon, Paris, circa 1881

The three panels comprising Le Voeu de Clovis à la Bataille de Tolbiac (The Vow of Clovis at the Battle of Tolbiac).

The Battle of Tolbiac was fought between the Franks, under the leadership of Clovis I, and the Alamanni, a confederation of Germanic tribes, whose leader in the battle is unknown. The date of the battle has traditionally been said to be 496, though other accounts suggest it may either have been fought as early as the 480s or as late as 506. The site of "Tolbiac", or "Tolbiacum", is usually given as Zülpich, North Rhine-Westphalia, about sixty kilometers east of what is now the German-Belgian frontier. Clovis is considered the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Frankish kingdom for the next two centuries, a kingdom that included most of Roman Gaul and parts of western Germany; to the French, he is the founder of France. The Battle of Tolbiac is seen as an important step in his consolidation of power, but his subsequent conversion to Catholicism was at least as politically and historically important. His wife Clotilde, a Burgundian princess, had long been pressuring him to convert. But according to Gregory of Tours, it wasn't until, in the heat of battle, with defeat in sight, that Clovis made a promise to his wife's god; if he won, he would convert to Catholicism. The Franks prevailed at Tolbiac and Clovis is said to have attributed his success to that vow; he was baptized on Christmas Day, 508.

Designed by Jacques-Germain Soufflot, the Panthéon was begun under the reign of Louis XV but was still unfinished at the beginning of the Revolution. Originally meant to be a church dedicated to Saint Genevieve, the city's patron saint, its function - church or mausoleum - would be debated for almost a hundred years until 1881, when the Third French Republic decreed its exclusive use as a resting place for the "great men of France." Already in 1874 a program of decoration had begun, its interior walls previously having been largely unadorned. New murals and sculptural groups linking French history and the history of the church were commissioned from leading artists. The majority of the murals - including Blanc's - were installed using the toile marouflée technique: the compositions were painted in oil on canvas and then glued to the wall.

In situ. Above "The Vow of Clovis at the Battle of Tolbiac" is Blanc's "Triumph of Clovis." 

To the right are the remaining two panels, "The Baptism of Clovis" and, above, "Gregory of Tours writing his History of the Franks."

Watercolor sketch, design for the project, showing all eight panels.

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Paul-Joseph Blanc (25 January 1846, Paris - 5 July 1904, Paris), French painter who specialized in scenes from history and mythology, as well as producing portraits of politicians. He attended the École des Beaux Arts where he studied with Alexandre Cabanel and, in 1867, he was awarded the Prix de Rome. He was named a professor at the École in 1889, although he also taught out of his studio in Montmartre. He contributed to the decoration of several buildings, among them the Opéra-Comique and the Hôtel de Ville, as well as the Panthéon, where he painted a group of history paintings: Le Voeu de Clovis à la Bataille de Tolbiac, Le Baptème de Clovis, Le Triomphe de Clovis, and Gregoire de Tours écrivant l'histoire de France. He also created a famous design for postage stamps, one which featured the image of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic.