Cultural depictions of Joan of Arc

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Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc in French) has inspired artistic and cultural works for nearly six centuries. The following lists cover various media to include items of historic interest, enduring works of high art, and recent representations in popular culture. The entries represent portrayals that a reader has a reasonable chance of encountering rather than a complete catalog. Lesser known works, particularly from early periods, are not included. In this article, many of the excluded items are derivative of better known representations. For instance, Friedrich Schiller's 1801 play The Maid of Orleans inspired at least 82 different dramatic works during the nineteenth century, and Verdi's and Tchaikovsky's operatic adaptations are still recorded and performed. Most of the others survive only in research libraries.^[1] As another example, in 1894, Émile Huet listed over 400 plays and musical works about Joan of Arc. Despite a great deal of scholarly interest in Joan of Arc, no complete list of artistic works about her exists, although a 1989 doctoral dissertation did identify all relevant films including ones for which no copy survives.^[1][2]

Portrayals of Joan of Arc are numerous. For example, in 1979 the Bibliothèque Municipale in Rouen, France displayed a gallery containing over 500 images and other items related to Joan of Arc.^[3] The story of Joan of Arc was a popular subject for dramatization in the 1940s. In addition to Maxwell Anderson's play Joan of Lorraine and the Ingrid Bergman film Joan of Arc, there was also the 1948 RKO film The Miracle of the Bells starring Fred MacMurray, Alida Valli, and Frank Sinatra, about a dying film actress whose first and last role is Joan of Arc. There were also three radio dramatizations of the story of Joan during those years, one of them specifically written with a World War II framework.