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THIS WEEK IN THE BULLETIN
Ingres' enigmatic painting opens this week's letter, followed by information regarding an up-coming conference in Madrid on the construction of Napoleonic Europe. In '200 years ago', we bring developments in Spain and the creation of the baccalaureate. In '150 years ago', there's a Second-Empire Easter recipe for your to try. In the Magazine, there's the contents of the recent number of the Nelson Dispatch, five recent books, comprising three republications (Marbot's and Segur's memoirs and Atteridge on Ney) and two new books (Hourtoulle's Wagram and Jouineau's excellent and useful uniform series, now in English). There are two new conferences, one in England (War and Slavery) and the other in France (the conference organised by the Fondation Napoléon to coincide with the bicentenary of Napoleon III's birth), then four new exhibitions (Napoleon III in Switzerland, caricatures of Napoleon I in Belgium, royal weddings in England (notably Queen Victoria with web expo) and the Symbols of Power exhibition now in France).
Enjoy.
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THIS MONTH'S PAINTING
The Woman bathing, known as the Valpinçon woman bathing, by Jean Auguste Dominique INGRES (1780-1867)
In 1808, Ingres chose to send to his teachers in Paris a sensuous and intimate scene depicting a woman bathing. Whilst the other work sent at the same time used a painting of Œdipus and the Sphinx (an eminently heroic and moral subject) as a pretext for a male nude, here the Woman seated (the first title for the Woman bathing) has no such alibi. She is naked - although only her back is shown - and on her head she wears a turban...
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SNIPPETS
Napoleonic Empire and the new European Political Culture, Madrid, April 2008
Since the publication in 1991 of Stuart Woolf's pioneering work, Napoleon's Integration of Europe, the field of Napoleonic studies has undergone something little short of a renaissance. Indeed, it might justly be called a process of 'normalization', rescuing an historical period so vital for a proper understanding of modern Europe from the domination of military history and pure hagiography. This cumulative process, at work in many different countries and national contexts, now has its first opportunity to come into its own right, as the moments of bicentennial commemoration arrive. Read all about it.
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200 YEARS AGO
Spanish affairs (the continuing story…)
On 18 March, popular revolts began in Aranjuez, known as the «March revolution», stirred up by nobles supporting the crown prince Ferdinand. Giving in to this pressure, Charles IV abdicated in favour of his son, who thus became Ferdinand VII.
On 23 March, Murat (recently appointed by the emperor, Lieutenant General of Spain) entered Madrid with his staff. On the same day, Napoleon penned his instructions: «I suppose that you arrived in Madrid today or yesterday. Keep excellent discipline. If the court is in Aranjuez, you should leave it there and show friendly sentiments towards it; if it has retired to Séville, you should similarly leave it alone.» (Correspondence No. 13,675). Murat had hoped to occupy Madrid calmly, but on 24 March, Ferdinand VII made a triumphal entry into the city…
Creation of the Baccalaureat
The decree of 17 March, 1808, stipulating the organisation of the Imperial university (Bulletin 447) and instituting the Palmes académiques (Bulletin 449), also established the baccalaureate university degree. It was the first qualification, followed by the Licence and then Doctorate (art.16). In order to take this examination, pupils had to meet several criteria according to whether the baccalaureate was literary, scientific, medical or theological. Pupils had to be at least sixteen years old and able to reply to questions «on all the subjects taught in secondary school». In the mathematical and physical sciences, pupils needed first to have received a literary baccalaureate and to be able to answer questions on arithmetic, geometry, rectilinear trigonometry, and algebra and its application to geometry. In medicine and law there were specific medical and legal exams, whilst in theology students had to be at least twenty years old, have passed a literary baccalaureate, have followed a three-year theology course and have defended a thesis publicly. (Titre III, §2)
Originally, the baccalureate exam took place before faculty professors, with the headmaster and censor of the school where the student had studied present as assistants on the exam commission. In academies where there was no faculty, the title of Bachelor was awarded, after exam, by a commission comprising the headmaster (acting as chairman), the censor, and the professors of philosophy and rhetoric from the nearest principle town. Numbers of bachelors grew from 31 in 1809 to 1,700 in 1813.
It was during the Second Empire that the first woman was awarded a BA in France. Julie Victoire Daubié became a bachelor in 1861, receiving her degree from the Académie de Lyon, since Paris had refused.
150 YEARS AGO
Easter lamb
During the Second Empire, middling families traditionally had lamb on Easter Sunday, sometimes a whole shank but often just a leg. The following recipe for broiled lamb was published in the Second Empire cookery book, La cuisinière des cuisinières: de la ville et de la campagne: manuel complet de cuisine à l'usage de tous ceux qui se mêlent de la dépense des maisons, (Limoges E. Ardant et C. Thibaut, 1867) (The cook of cooks, town and country. The complete cookery manual for all those involved in cooking in houses)
Leg of lamb in the English style
«Cut a little of the skin at the foot and joint ends of the leg, so as to be able to lift back the skin without disfiguring the leg; lard crosswise with thick strips of bacon; tie up the leg and put in a pot of the same size as the leg, with some stock, a bouquet of parsley and chives, a clove of garlic, three cloves, a bay leaf, thyme, basil, salt and pepper. When it is cooked, drain the leg and wipe of the excess fat with a cloth, and serve it with the following sauce: put a glass of vegetable stock into a saucepan, the same amount of meat stock (dissolved marmite), capers, anchovies, a little parsley, chives, a shallot, the yoke of a hard-boiled egg, all of which finely chopped. Bring just not quite to the boil. Pour over the gigot.»
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, Easter.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, No 450, 21 - 27 March, 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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REMINDER
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During the French school holidays the library openings times are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 1-30 to 6pm.
THIS WEEK in the MAGAZINE
Press Review
- The Nelson Dispatch, January 2008
Recently published
- MARBOT Baron de, The Exploits of Baron de Marbot
- ATTERIDGE A.H., Marshal Ney: the Bravest of the Brave
- SÉGUR Philipe Paul, Comte de, Memoirs of an Aide-de-Camp of Napoleon 1800-1812
- HOURTOULLE F.-G., Wagram: At the Heyday of the Empire
- JOUINEAU André, French Hussars: Volume 1: 1786 - 1804 (Officers and Soldiers, 5)
What's on
Conferences
- War, Empire and Slavery c. 1790-1820, York, UK
- Napoleon III, man and politician, Paris, France
Exhibitions
- Napoleon III, der Kaiser vom Bodensee (The Emperor from Lake Constance), Arenenberg, Switzerland
- Napoleon – genius and tyrant, Namur, Belgium
- Royal weddings 1840-1947: from Queen Victoria to Queen Elizabeth II, Windsor, England
- Napoléon. Symboles des pouvoirs sous l'Empire (Symbols of Power: Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style, 1800–1815),
Paris, France
- Napoleone Fasto imperiale. I Tesori della Fondation Napoléon, Rome, Italy
- A passion for Parma violets: Napoleon and Marie Louise, Parma, Italy
- Gustave Courbet, Metropolitan Museum, New York, USA
- König Lustik!? Jérôme Bonaparte and the Model State: the Kingdom of Westphalia, Kassel, Germany
- The Eye of Josephine, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, United States
- Goya: the Disasters of War, Berkley Art Museum, University of California, USA
- 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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