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THIS WEEK IN THE BULLETIN
First off, we bring you Napoleon's sumptuous 1804 table boat. Then, there's a reminder of the fabulous exhibition in Paris of Napoleon's ‘seductive' symbols at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. In ‘200 years ago', you can read about the Russian invasion of the Swedish province of Finland in 1808 and the Swedish riposte, and the continuing developments in Spain. In ‘150 years ago', there's news of the Prince Impérial commemorative medals awarded to school prize winners and Pope Pius IX's ‘modern' means of transport, specially built for him in England and Paris. In the Magazine there are four new titles: two Napoleonic novels, namely, Wolf Hunt, by the French author Armand Cabasson and Napoleon's Double, by the Australian author Antoni Jach; a new book on Madame de Staël by Angelica Goodden; and Ian Robertson's latest book on Wellington in Spain. We end as usual with a selection of current Napoleonic events, including the major conference on Napoleon III which we have organised and which opens on Monday.
Enjoy.
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THIS MONTH' OBJECT
The Emperor's table 'boat' by Henry Auguste
With the proclamation of Empire in 1804 came the re-establishment of a ceremonial for every aspect of the sovereigns' and court's official life. The «Etiquette du Palais Impérial» composed by M. de Ségur, the Grand Master of Ceremonies, includes protocol for absolutely every single moment of court life. 'Their Majesties' Repast' was no exception. Since imperial ceremonies required imperial furnishings, the Grand Vermeil was created for use at some of the Empire's most prestigious occasions. Of this sumptuous table service originally comprising more than 1000 pieces, only 24 pieces remain today, one of which being extraordinary table boat shown here.
© RMN
This piece is currently on show at the Musée des arts décoratifs in Paris as part of the exhibition, Napoléon. Symboles des pouvoirs sous l'Empire (closes on 5 October, 2008).
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WHAT'S ON
Reminder: The Napoleon exhibition in Paris
After a period at the Museum of Fine Arts de Boston, this exhibition, Napoléon. Symboles des pouvoirs sous l'Empire s'est is now in Paris at the Musée des Arts décoratifs until 5 October. During Napoleon's reign, a new vigour permeated the Decorative Arts. Furniture and objects were embellished with simple, forceful imagery drawn from classical Mythology, and the role of these features was far from being merely decorative. By focusing specifically on the meaning of Ornaments during the Empire, this exhibition challenges traditional ideas regarding Napoleonic Symbols, symbols often reduced in the collective imagination to emblems of political power. This exhibition invites visitors to take a fresh look at the imagery - the Eagle, the Butterfly, the Laurel Leaf, the Floral crown, the Bee, the ephebe, the Sphinx, the Swan, Apollo and Psyche - to reveal the other facet of power: seduction.
© Musée des arts décoratifs
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200 YEARS AGO
The Russo-Swedish War of 1808
After the Swedish king, Gustav IV, had rejected Russian overtures to join the Franco-Russian alliance enshrined at Tilsit, Russian troops invaded and in a lightning campaign in February 1808 took an undefended Swedish province of Finland. This was very much with Napoleon's blessing. As the emperor noted to Caulaincourt on 2 February, 1808: “We must encourage [Alexander] to take it. Russia will never have another such occasion to place St Petersburg at the centre of things and get rid of their geographical enemy [i.e., Sweden]…” (Lecestre, Lettres inédites, t. I, p. 142) Indeed, the ultimate aim of the campaign was to attack Sweden.
Upon annexation of Finland on 1 April, Russian troops went to occupy the Aalands islands, Abo (which Sweden had abandoned, scuttling fifty vessels there), and the island of Gothland. The Swedish king then retaliated, sending Rear-Admiral Cedeström with six ships of the line and 1,900 men to retake the latter island. They landed at Sandviken (on the eastern side) on 14 May 1808, forcing a Russian capitulation two days later. The Moniteur reported on developments in the Baltic on 15 May (quoting the Prussian publication the Publiciste): “The king of Sweden has made urgent requests in London for a flotilla of boats to be sent to the Gulf of Bothnia…. If the Russian take the Aalands islands, they could easily land at Stockholm and Upland”. The Moniteur of the following day reported on Russian celebrations in Finland (now part of the Russian empire) for the commemoration of Alexander's imperial accession day.
Spain (the continuing story…)
The province of the Asturias was the first to organise resistance to the French occupation – although modern scholarship also underlines that local desires for score settling and dissidence were also significant motivators. On 24 May, 1808, after ten days of secret preparation organised by the Junta General (an estates general body of citizens and not officials or burocrats), the population of Oviedo and the neighbouring countryside rose up, seizing weaponry stored in the arsenal and imprisoning the partisans of the new ‘French' government. On the following day, the Marquis de Santa Cruz, in the name of the city junta, declared war on Napoleon and ordered a levy of 18,000 men. In Valencia, on 24 May, an uprising occurred upon the learning of the events in Bayonne. The locals formed a junta and proclaimed a mass levy to pursue the war. The Moniteur of 16 May, 1808, blithely noted: “Everything is perfectly calm in Spain, and things are starting off very much on the right foot”.
150 YEARS AGO
School Prizes: the Imperial medal
The Moniteur of 19 May, 1858, reported that the commemorative medal, produced by the municipal council of Paris in honour of the birth of the Prince Impérial, had been awarded to prize winning pupils at Lycées or High Schools throughout France during the Easter prize giving ceremonies. The newspaper noted appreciatively that the awards were accompanied by repeated cries of “Vive l'Empereur, vive l'Impératrice and vive le Prince Impérial”.
Pope mobile, 1858
In 1858, Pope Pius IX was to receive from the French company managing the Roma - Civitavecchia railway line a donation of two sumptuous train carriages. These were built in the same year in Paris by the Delettrez et Compagnie under the direction of the artist Emile Trélat. One of these carriages was described in detail in the Moniteur dated 22 May, 1858 (the text had been taken from an article published by Théophile Gautier). The report ran: “No effort has been spared to make the carriage worthy of the Pontiff. It is divided into three compartments – an oratory, a salon, and a room in which to rest. The outside is decorated with four gold and silver angels, the medallions of the twelve apostles and bronze panels. The salon contains paintings by Monsieur Gérome.” Two of these were remarkably modern: one showed the Holy Father blessing a steam ship – symbolising the union of Italy and France – and the other showed him blessing a steam train “ready to pick up speed, blasting jets of smoke impatiently from it brazen nostrils, like a monster from mythological times”. “It would be difficult”, enthused the authors of the piece, “to ornament the papal car with better taste or decorum”.
Unlike his conservative predecessor, Gregory XVI - who famously remarked (in French) “chemin de fer, chemin d'enfer” (“Rail road, hell road”) -, Pius IX was very keen on the modern technology of railways, and it was he who brought them to the Papal States. The first Roman train line, the Linea Ferrovia Roma-Frascati, was founded in 1856 and christened the ‘Pio Latina'. The railway company had four principal locomotives, all made in England by Sharp & Steward and Brids Adams, and (after a request made by Pius) these were named 'Pio', 'Pietro', 'Paolo' and 'Giovanni' after the saints. The carriages mentioned here can be seen on display at the Museum of Rome in the Palazzo Braschi.
External Links
- Pope Pius IX's train (period photograph)
- The decorations to Pius IX's carriages, Museo di Roma, Palazzo Braschi (vignettes only)
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, No 458, 16 - 23 May, 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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Got a problem with a link in the Bulletin? Go to the homepage: http://www.napoleon.org
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
Just published
- Wolf Hunt, by Armand Cabasson
- Madame de Stael: The Dangerous Exile, by Angelica Goodden
- A Commanding Presence: Wellington in the Peninsula 1808-1814, by Ian Robertson
- Napoleon's Double, by Antoni Jach
What's on
Re-enactments
- Newstead Abbey, Nottingham, UK
- Ironfest 2008, The Battle of Lithgow, Blue Mountains, Australia
- Medina de Rioseco, Spain
- Waterloo 1815 - 10th Napoleonic Bivouacs, Waterloo, Belgium
- Valencia: International Battle Re-enactment, Spain
Talks
- Pages from military history, 1808-1815, Macerata, Italy
Conferences
- Napoleon's War in Spain: Reactions, Images and Consequences, Alicante, Spain
- War, Empire and Slavery c. 1790-1820, York, UK
- Napoleon III, man and politician, Paris, France
Exhibitions
- Coinage at War. Catalonia in Napoleonic Europe, National Art Museum of Catalonia, Barcelona
- Treasures of Napoleon, New Orleans, USA
- 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
- 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
- "The trace of the eagle", the Invalides dome, Paris, France
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