File:Four paintings Paris Salon 1878--Jean Joseph Weerts-- Auguste Emmanuel Pointelin--Hector Leroux--Léon Herpin.jpg

English: Four paintings from the Paris Salon of 1878: Jean Joseph Weerts, "La Vierge évanouie au pied de la croix"; Auguste Emmanuel Pointelin, "Une prairie dans la Côte-d'Or"; Hector Leroux, "Minerve Poliade sur l'Acropole d'Athènes"; Léon Herpin, "Paris, vue prise du pont des Saints-Pères".

The Salon program entry for the Leroux painting cites a passage from Pausanias (1.26.6): "Both the city and the whole of the land are alike sacred to Athena; for even those who in their parishes have an established worship of other gods nevertheless hold Athena in honor. But the most holy symbol, that was so considered by all many years before the unification of the parishes, is the image of Athena which is on what is now called the Acropolis, but in early days the Polis (City). A legend concerning it says that it fell from heaven; whether this is true or not I shall not discuss."

As of 1902, Leroux's "Minerve Poliade sur l'Acropole d'Athènes" was in the Musée d'Abbeville et du Ponthieu, as listed on p. 56 of the museum catalogue published that year, where the dimensions are given as .85 x 1.25 m, and the painting is described: "The goddess, her head covered with her helmet, wearing the coat of mail, the spear in her hand and holding her shield in the other, appears on the left, of supernatural size and surrounded by a cloud, above the citadel. . Lower down, in the middle of the composition, a little to the right, a standing woman in antique costume stands out in white against a clump of trees; she raises her arms to the sky as a sign of terror or surprise. A little further on, two other women, at the sight of the prodigy, prostrated themselves; another flees to the right. In the background, on the same side, you can see the sea; on the left, in the distance, a column."

This painting by Leroux is very similar to an earlier version, also dated 1878, that was auctioned in London in 2011. "The Foreshadowings of the Salon" by Lucy H. Hooper in The Art Journal, 1878, pp. 60-61, explains the two different versions, first describing the final version at the Paris Salon: "He [Leroux] has chosen to represent the fall of the miraculous image of Minerva from heaven. The scene occurs upon the summit of a hill near Athens. In the background lies the city beyond the shining waters of the gulf, a view painted from Nature with great accuracy of detail. In the foreground the miraculous image, the gift of the gods, upborne by a floating cloud, is descending to the ground. It is of colossal size, and stands revealed in dusky magnitude against the pale gold of the sky. In front of a group of pines towards the centre of the picture are three young girls, the sole witnesses of the miracle. One stands in wild amazement with uplifted arms, another hides her face in terror, a third crouches on the ground. As originally designed, the canvas was crowded with figures in various attitudes of adoration or of dismay. 'But,' said M. Leroux, 'on mature consideration, it seemed to me best that this ancient miracle, like more modern ones, should have but few witnesses, therefore I laid my first canvas aside and reproduced the whole scene anew.'"