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THIS WEEK IN THE BULLETIN
We open with the beautiful Sèvres porcelain vase soon to be on show in Rome at the exhibition organised by the Museo Napoleonico. Then we bring you information of that show in Rome. Thereafter, in ‘200 years ago', there's a report on the crowds flocking to see David's massive painting of the Sacre. In ‘150 years ago', it's one and half centuries since Bernadette Soubirous began having visions of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes. In 'Seen on the web' there's an author's website dedicated to Maximilian I of Mexico and the website for a group of drum re-enactors. In 'What's on', some of the new events include the forthcoming re-enactment in Valauris-Golfe Juan of Napoleon's landing there in 1815, a talk on St Helena in a gallery in Ontario, and the major exhibition in Kassel (Germany) commemorating the bicentenary of the creation for Jerome of the Kingdom of Westphalia.
Enjoy.
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THIS MONTH'S OBJECT
‘Etruscan carafe' vase: Baptism of the Roi de Rome
This product of the Sèvres Manufactory was modelled on a Greek vase from the collection which Denon sold to the king in 1785. The central motif is a copy of the official medal showing the figure of the Emperor holding his son above the baptismal font. It was painted in 1812, and the Emperor gave it as a new year's gift in 1813 to Comtesse de Noailles, who had been appointed Lady in waiting to the Empress Marie-Louise the preceding year.
Vase © Fondation Napoléon - Patrice Maurin-Berthier
This vase will be on show in Rome at the Museo Napoleonico's exhibition, I Tesori della Fondation Napoléon
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FONDATION NAPOLEON NEWS
Napoleone Fasto imperiale. I Tesori della Fondation Napoléon
After the success of the exhibitions in Paris, Brazil, Mexico and Germany, the Treasures of the Fondation Napoléon are to travel to Italy. The Museo Napoleonico in Rome is to inaugurate its new temporary exhibition halls with a presentation of the Fondation's treasures. In addition to more than 250 works of art and historical memorabilia of museum quality the exhibition also includes exceptional loans from the Musée de l'Armée and the Musée National de Malmaison.
© Museo napoleonico
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200 YEARS AGO
Crowds flock to see David's Sacre
David's vast painting of Napoleon's sacre at Notre-Dame went on show in the Louvre in January 1808. Unsurprisingly, the picture was a huge public success:
«There's always a crowd, and unless you arrive a little early or a little late, there's a scrum of people pushing and shoving, and you can only see the painting with difficulty. […] All those who have viewed this composition agree that it is the artist's finest work, that it does honour to the French school, and that it will become a valuable monument to our history. Perhaps people may criticise the slight fault in the perspective, the tones that are slightly too grey and the figures which may give the impression of being stuck-on and not sufficiently detached from the background. But that which will be admired forever is the nobility of the composition, the opulence of the draperies, the precision of the design, the quality of the colours, the dignity, the grandeur, and the piety of the two august figures upon which the eyes of all, including the viewers, are fixed.» (Journal de Paris, 18 February, 1808). The image of crowds jostling each other to view the painting was famously immortalised by the painter Boilly.
The longer the painting was exhibited, however, the more the viewing public became critical: «It has been noticed that the painting has given rise to certain jocular remarks, for example, that the women in the painting are like those in Muhammad's paradise, all young and pretty.» (Bulletin du ministère de la police générale, 19 February).
After appearing at the Louvre, David's Sacre was exhibited at the Salon of 1808, and again (one final time) at the Concours décennial in 1810. The Emperor's remarriage later the same year made it impossible to hang the picture in any imperial palace. This quintessentially imperial work was only to be seen by its contemporaries for a total of six months.
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150 YEARS AGO
When the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous: Lourdes
There was nothing about Bernadette Soubirous, the fourteen-year-old, illiterate daughter of a miller, that marked her out. And yet her name was to go down in history.
On 11 February, 1858, Bernadette had her first vision of the Virgin Mary when she was gathering wood near the cave known as the Grotte de Massabielle (Pyrénées) – the cave has been known ever since as the Grotte de 'Immaculée Conception (la Sainte Vierge). According to Bernadette, the Blessed Virgin appeared to her as a small girl, with chaplet on her arm, a blue belt and two yellow roses on her bare feet. At her sixth vision (21 February), Bernadette was accompanied by hundreds of bystanders, though only Bernadette could see the visions.
In the period up to 16 July, 1858, Bernadette had a further seventeen visions. She claimed that the «Immaculée Conception» had asked her to pray for sinners and to build a fountain, at the spot in the cave where the spring emerged, and a sanctuary.
In January 1862, the authenticity of Bernadette's visions was recognised by the bishop of Tarbes, and it was at this time that construction work began on Marian sanctuary which still stands to this day and which is visited by pilgrims from the world over.
Bernadette stayed at Lourdes until 1866 and left for a convent Nevers where she lived for thirteen years. She died in 1879 of tuberculosis. She was later canonised.
Bernadette Soubirous © DR
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, No 444, 8-14 February, 2008
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© this Napoleon.org weekly bulletin is published by the Fondation Napoléon. Reproduction or all or part of this bulletin is forbidden, without prior agreement of the Fondation Napoléon.
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STOP PRESS: CLOSURE OF THE BIBLIOTHEQUE FONDATION NAPOLEON LIBRARY
The library will be exceptionally closed on Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 February, 2008.
REMINDER
The new Bibliothèque Fondation Napoléon library times are: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, from 1 to 6pm, Thursday from 10am to 3pm.
During the French school holidays the library openings times are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 1-30 to 6pm.
THIS WEEK in the MAGAZINE
Seen on the web
- Maximilian von Habsburg Archduke of Austria and Emperor of Mexico
- Les Tambours de l'empire
What's on
Talk:
- The St-Helena Napoleon never knew, Cobourg, Ontario, Canada
Re-enactments:
- Napoleon's arrival at Vallauris - Golfe Juan, France
Exhibitions:
- König Lustik!? Jérôme Bonaparte and the Model State: the Kingdom of Westphalia, Kassel, Germany
- Napoleon on the Nile, Staten Island, New York, USA
- The Eye of Josephine, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, United States
- Goya: the Disasters of War, Berkley Art Museum, University of California, USA
- Chronicles of Riches: Treasures from the Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto, Canada
- La Rose Impériale: The Development of Modern Roses, Boone Gallery, The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, USA
- "The trace of the eagle", the Invalides dome, Paris, France
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