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Vivant Denon | |
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.jpg) Vivant Denon byRobert Lefèvre (1809) | |
| Born | (1747-01-04)4 January 1747 Chalon-sur-Saône,Burgundy, Kingdom of France |
| Died | 27 April 1825(1825-04-27) (aged 78) Paris, Kingdom of France |
| Nationality | French |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Engraving,Archaeology |
Dominique Vivant, Baron Denon (French pronunciation:[dɔminikvivɑ̃baʁɔ̃dənɔ̃]; 4 January 1747 – 27 April 1825) was a French artist, writer,diplomat, author, andarchaeologist.[1] Denon was a diplomat for France underLouis XV andLouis XVI.[1] He was appointed as the first Director of theLouvre museum byNapoleon after theEgyptian campaign of 1798–1801, and is commemorated in the Denon Wing of the modern museum and in the Dominique-Vivant Denon Research Center.[2] His two-volumeVoyage dans la basse et la haute Egypte ("Journey in Lower and Upper Egypt"), 1802, was foundational for modernEgyptology.
Vivant Denon was born in Givry, nearChalon-sur-Saône[3] to a family called "de Non", of the "petite noblesse" orgentry, and until theFrench Revolution signed himself as "le chevalier de Non".[4] Like many of the nobility, he revised his surname at the Revolution to lose the "nobiliary particle" "de". He seems to have consistently avoided using his baptised first name "Dominique", preferring his middle name "Vivant", and so is usually known as "Vivant Denon". He was created "Baron Denon" by Napoleon in August 1812, at the age of 65.
He was sent to Paris to study law, but he showed a decided preference for art and literature, and soon gave up his profession. In his twenty-third year he produced a comedy,Le Bon Pére, which obtained asuccès d'estime, as he had already won a position in society by his agreeable manners and exceptional conversational powers. He became a favorite ofLouis XV, who entrusted him with the collection and arrangement of a cabinet of medals andantique gems forMadame de Pompadour, and subsequently appointed himattaché to the French embassy atSt. Petersburg.[5]
On the accession ofLouis XVI, Denon was transferred to Sweden; but he returned, after a brief interval, to Paris with the ambassadorM. de Vergennes, who had been appointed foreign minister. In 1775 Denon was sent on a secret mission to Switzerland, and took the opportunity of visitingVoltaire atFerney.[6] He made a portrait of the philosopher, which was engraved and published on his return to Paris. His next diplomatic appointment was toNaples, where he spent seven years, first as secretary to the embassy and afterwards aschargé d'affaires. He devoted this period to a careful study of the monuments of ancient art, collecting many specimens and making drawings of others. He also perfected himself inetching andmezzotinto engraving.[5] While in Naples he met SirWilliam andLady Hamilton and he etched Lady Hamilton 'posing'.
The death of hispatron,Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, in 1787, led to hisrecall, and the rest of his life was given mainly to artistic pursuits. On his return to Paris he was admitted a member of theAcadémie royale de peinture et de sculpture (1787). After a brief interval he returned to Italy, living chiefly atVenice. He also visitedFlorence andBologna, and afterwards went to Switzerland. While there he heard that his property had been confiscated, and his name placed on the list of theproscribed, and with characteristic courage he resolved at once to return to Paris: his situation was critical, but he was spared, thanks to the friendship of the painterJacques-Louis David, who obtained for him a commission to furnish designs for republican costumes. When theRevolution was over, Denon was one of the bands of eminent men who frequented the house ofJoséphine de Beauharnais. Here he metNapoleon, to whose fortunes he wisely attached himself.[5]
At Bonaparte's invitation he joined theexpedition to Egypt as part of the arts and literature section of theInstitut d'Égypte, and thus found the opportunity of gathering the materials for his most important literary and artistic work. He accompaniedGeneral Desaix toUpper Egypt, and made numerous sketches of the monuments of ancient art, sometimes under the very fire of the enemy. The results were published in hisVoyage dans la basse et la haute Egypte (Journey inLower and Upper Egypt), published as two volumes in 1802. The work crowned his reputation both as an archaeologist and as an artist, and sparkedEgyptian Revival architecture anddecorative arts.[5]
On 19 November 1802,[7] he was appointed by Napoleon to the important office of director-general of museums and head of the newMusée Napoléon, which he filled until the Allied occupation of Paris in 1814, when he had to retire.[8] He was a devoted servant of Napoleon, on whose behalf hepersonally looted vast numbers of works of art in Italy, the Low Countries and Germany and, through agents (includingFrancisco Goya), in Spain, for the Musée Napoleon in Paris. Many of these remain in theLouvre, and elsewhere in France, today. In particular, Denon was one of the first men to appreciate the importance of the Italian 'primitives'. The majority of those now in the Louvre were looted by Denon during a sweep he made through Italy in 1812. They were publicly paraded, with elephants and other wild animals, like aRoman triumph, through the streets of Paris, before being deposited in the Louvre.
Denon took full opportunity, while working for Napoleon, to assemble for himself an enormous collection of paintings, drawings, prints, books, statuary andobjets d'art. This collection was sold at auction over several days after Denon's death. In 1810 he also assisted theHermitage Museum in its acquisition ofRosso Fiorentino'sMadonna and Child with Cherubs in Paris.
At theBourbon Restoration of 1814 Denon was confirmed in place for a year, but was too closely associated with the former regime to keep the position for long, and was replaced byAuguste de Forbin in 1816. After his forced retirement he began an illustrated history of ancient and modern art, in which he had the cooperation of several skillfulengravers. He died at Paris in 1825, leaving the work unfinished. It was published posthumously, with an explanatory text byAmaury Duval, under the titleMonuments des arts du dessin chez les peuples tant anciens que modernes, recueillis par Vivant Denon in 1829.[5] Denon was also the author of anerotic novel,Point de lendemain, published in 1777 (in 1812 as a separate work), and of a number of erotic etchings.[9]
He died inParis and is buried in the world famousPère Lachaise Cemetery, where his grave is marked by a life-sized statue.
InNapoleon III's Louvre expansion in the 1850s, Denon's name was given to the central pavilion of the Nouveau Louvre's South Wing. In theGrand Louvre project of the late 1980s, the entire South Wing of theLouvre Palace was named after him (aile Denon, echoingRichelieu to the North andSully to the East) as part of a signposting concept developed by theCarbone Smolan Agency.
Point de lendemain.
Anthony O'Neill included the character of Vivant Denon in his novelThe Empire of Eternity, in which he is portrayed as bisexual.[10]
Lee Langley has written abiographical novel of Denon's life,A conversation on the Quai Voltaire.[11]
Ruth McKenney also includes the character of Vivant Denon in her novelMirage.[12]
Milan Kundera'sSlowness (1995) includes a rewriting of Vivant-Denon'sPoint de lendemain.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Denon, Dominique Vivant, Baron de".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 45.
Media related toDominique Vivant Denon at Wikimedia Commons
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