Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A captivating in-depth study of Napoleon's plundering of Europe's art and how it legitimized the Louvre.
Vast and sublime, more than twenty-two feet tall and thirty-two feet wide, and featuring a brilliantly staged, lavishly colored banquet with some hundred and thirty figures, Paolo Veronese's painting Wedding Feast at Cana was hailed as a masterpiece of High Renaissance art upon its completion in 1563. It hung in the monastery of the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore until French troops, on the order of their twenty-eight-year-old leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, tore it off the wall of the monastery in 1797. Veronese's masterwork was one of twenty paintings that Napoleon took after his troops marched on Venice. Folded like a rug, the canvas ended up at the Louvre, establishing it as the greatest art museum in the world.
In Plunder: Napoleon's Theft of Veronese's Feast, the celebrated art historian Cynthia Saltzman tells the story of Napoleon's art looting and its relationship to the foundation of the Louvre. As Saltzman shows, Napoleon looted art for the French nation he represented; he displayed it in a public museum, which, owing to the plundered masterworks, soon became the toast of Europe. Napoleon's penchant for looting reflected the best and worst of his character: his desire for greatness--to carry forward the finest parts of civilization--and his ruthlessness in mythologizing himself and seizing power.
Expertly researched, and with rare insight into one of history's most famous and polarizing individuals, Plunder is a propulsive chronicle of the Napoleonic Wars, art theft, and the controversial origins of the world's greatest museum.
Synopsis
A captivating study of Napoleon's plundering of Europe's art for the Louvre, told through the story of a masterpiece seized from Venice.
Vast and sublime, more than twenty-two feet tall and thirty-two feet wide, and featuring a brilliantly staged, lavishly colored banquet with some hundred and thirty figures, Paolo Veronese's painting The Wedding Feast at Cana was hailed as a masterpiece of High Renaissance art upon its completion in 1563. It hung in the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore on a Venetian Island until French troops, on the order of their twenty-eight-year-old commander, Napoleon Bonaparte, tore it off the wall of the monastery in 1797. Veronese's masterwork was one of twenty paintings that Napoleon took after his troops marched on Venice. Rolled like a rug, the canvas ended up at the Louvre, establishing it as the greatest art museum in the world.
In Plunder: Napoleon's Theft of Veronese's Feast, the celebrated art historian Cynthia Saltzman tells the story of Napoleon's art looting and its relationship to the foundation of the Louvre. As Saltzman shows, Napoleon looted art for the French nation; he displayed it in a public museum, which, owing to the plundered masterworks, soon became the toast of Europe. Napoleon's penchant for looting reflected the best and worst of his character: his desire for greatness--to carry forward the finest parts of civilization--and his ruthlessness in mythologizing himself and seizing power.
Expertly researched, and with rare insight into one of history's most famous and polarizing individuals, Plunder is a propulsive chronicle of the Napoleonic Wars, art theft, and the controversial origins of the world's greatest museum.
Synopsis
A captivatingstudy of Napoleon's plundering of Europe's art for the Louvre, told through the story of a Renaissance masterpiece seized from Venice
Cynthia Saltzman's Plunder recounts the fate of Paolo Veronese's Wedding Feast at Cana, a vast, sublime canvas that the French, under the command of the young Napoleon Bonaparte, tore from a wall of the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, on an island in Venice, in 1797. Painted in 1563 during the Renaissance, the picture was immediately hailed as a masterpiece. Veronese had filled the scene with some 130 figures, lavishing color on the canvas to build the illusion that the viewers' space opened onto a biblical banquet taking place on a terrace in sixteenth-century Venice. Once pulled from the wall, the Venetian canvas crossed the Mediterranean rolled on a cylinder; soon after, artworks commandeered from Venice and Rome were triumphantly brought into Paris. In 1801, the Veronese went on exhibition at the Louvre, the new public art museum founded during the Revolution in the former palace of the French kings.
As Saltzman tells the larger story of Napoleon's looting of Italian art and its role in the creation of the Louvre, she reveals the contradictions of his character: his thirst for greatness--to carry forward the finest aspects of civilization--and his ruthlessness in getting whatever he sought. After Napoleon's 1815 defeat at Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington and the Allies forced the French to return many of the Louvre's plundered paintings and sculptures. Nevertheless, The Wedding Feast at Cana remains in Paris to this day, hanging directly across from the Mona Lisa.
Expertly researched and deftly told, Plunder chronicles one of the most spectacular art appropriation campaigns in history, one that sheds light on a seminal historical figure and the complex origins of one of the great museums of the world.
Synopsis
One of The Christian Science Monitor's Ten Best Books of May
A highly original work of history . . . Saltzman] has written a distinctive study that transcends both art and history and forces us to explore the connections between the two." --Roger Lowenstein, The Wall Street Journal
A captivatingstudy of Napoleon's plundering of Europe's art for the Louvre, told through the story of a Renaissance masterpiece seized from Venice
Cynthia Saltzman's Plunder recounts the fate of Paolo Veronese's Wedding Feast at Cana, a vast, sublime canvas that the French, under the command of the young Napoleon Bonaparte, tore from a wall of the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, on an island in Venice, in 1797. Painted in 1563 during the Renaissance, the picture was immediately hailed as a masterpiece. Veronese had filled the scene with some 130 figures, lavishing color on the canvas to build the illusion that the viewers' space opened onto a biblical banquet taking place on a terrace in sixteenth-century Venice. Once pulled from the wall, the Venetian canvas crossed the Mediterranean rolled on a cylinder; soon after, artworks commandeered from Venice and Rome were triumphantly brought into Paris. In 1801, the Veronese went on exhibition at the Louvre, the new public art museum founded during the Revolution in the former palace of the French kings.
As Saltzman tells the larger story of Napoleon's looting of Italian art and its role in the creation of the Louvre, she reveals the contradictions of his character: his thirst for greatness--to carry forward the finest aspects of civilization--and his ruthlessness in getting whatever he sought. After Napoleon's 1815 defeat at Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington and the Allies forced the French to return many of the Louvre's plundered paintings and sculptures. Nevertheless, The Wedding Feast at Cana remains in Paris to this day, hanging directly across from the Mona Lisa.
Expertly researched and deftly told, Plunder chronicles one of the most spectacular art appropriation campaigns in history, one that sheds light on a seminal historical figure and the complex origins of one of the great museums of the world.