Napoleon’s Plunder and the Theft of Veronese’s Feast
Thames & Hudson Ltd (Verlag)
978-0-500-25257-4 (ISBN)
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'Taking without taste, without choice, is ignorance and near vandalism.’
— The French Directory to Napoleon Bonaparte, 1796
Napoleon’s Plunder chronicles one of the most spectacular art appropriation campaigns in history and, in doing so, sheds new light on the complex origins of what was once called the Musée Napoléon, now known as the Louvre.
In 1796, four years after the founding of the First French Republic and only two days after his marriage to Josephine de Beauharnais, Napoleon Bonaparte left Paris to take command of his first campaign in Italy, aged only twenty-six. One year later, Napoleon’s army was in Venice and his commissioners were determining which great Renaissance artworks to bring back to France. Among the paintings the French chose was The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Veronese, a vast masterpiece that had hung in the refectory of San Giorgio Maggiore since it was painted in 1563.
Once pulled from the wall, the Venetian canvas crossed the Mediterranean packed among paintings commandeered from Venice and made its way by river and canal to Paris where Napoleon gathered his spoils of war – treasures from the cities of Rome, Milan, and later Berlin and Vienna. In 1801 the Veronese was placed on triumphant display in the Louvre, the former palace of the French kings, which had been transformed into a public museum that ostensibly belonged to the French people, but which also functioned as a monument to Napoleon’s power.
Saltzman interweaves the stories of Napoleon’s military campaigns, uncovering the treaties through which he obtained his loot, with the histories of the plundered works themselves, exploring how these masterpieces came into being. As much as a story of military might, this is an account of one of the most ambitious cultural projects ever conducted.
With 46 illustrations, 14 in colour
Cynthia Saltzman is the author of Portrait of Dr. Gachet: The Story of a Van Gogh Masterpiece and Old Masters, New World: America's Raid on Europe's Great Pictures. She has written for Forbes and The Wall Street Journal.
Introduction: “The theft of Veronese’s Feast” • 1. “Send Me a List of the Pictures, Statues, Cabinets and Curiosities.” • 2. “Do Not Fear the French Armies Will Not Respect Venetian Neutrality.” • 3. “Master Paolo ... Will ... Not Spare Any Expense for the Finest Ultramarine.” • 4. “He is Rich in Plans.” • 5.“The Museum Must Demonstrate the Nation’s Great Riches.” • 6. “Draw as Much as You Can from Venetian Territory.” • 7. “The Pope will Deliver ... One Hundred Paintings Busts, Vases or Statues.” • 8. “I’m on a Path a Thousand Times More Glorious.” • 9. “The Republic of Venice will Surrender... 20 Paintings and 600 Manuscripts.” • 10. “In the Church of S. George, No. 6. The Wedding Feast at Cana.” • 11. “We ... Have Received from Citizen Pietro Edwards.” • 12. “The Safest Way is to Send Them on a Frigate with 32 Canons.” • 13. “The Seam will be Unstitched.” • 14. “The Revolution ... is Finished.” • 15. “You Enter a Gallery—such a gallery. But such a gallery!!!” Louvre 1801-1802 • 16. “This One Besides Nature Doesn’t Look to Have Been Painted.” • 17. “The Transparency of Air ... Place[s] Gros beside Tintoretto and Paul Veronese” • 18. “This Beautiful Work Reminds Us of the Picture by Paul Veronese.” • 19. “I Succeeded ... in Packing Most of the Pieces of Small Size and Great Value.” • 20. “The Only Thing to Do Is to Burn Them!” • 21. “This Foreboding Painting... Seems to Summon the Eye from All Directions.” • 22. “The Masterpieces of the Arts Now Belong to Us.” • 23. “We Are At Last Beginning to Drag Forth from This Great Cavern of Stolen Goods the Precious Objects of Art.” • Epilogue: Veronese 2020
| Erscheinungsdatum | 14.05.2021 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 32 Illustrations, black and white; 14 Illustrations, color |
| Verlagsort | London |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 153 x 234 mm |
| Gewicht | 700 g |
| Themenwelt | Kunst / Musik / Theater |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-500-25257-2 / 0500252572 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-500-25257-4 / 9780500252574 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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