The ideal of the Virgin Mary as a feminine archetype of perfection persisted throughout the nineteenth century. An exemplary mother and wife, her resignation to her fate was interpreted as the principal model of moral behaviour for women. Coullaut transferred these ideas to the naturalist figure of a submissive woman who accepts the mission she has been charged with. This notion of selflessness is monumentalised by her three-dimensionality and her dimensions, just over life-size.