Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the Dynamics of Stylistic Transformation
Caroline van Eck and Miguel John Versluys
J’avoue que le style Empire m’a toujours impressionnée. Mais, chez les Iéna, là, c’est vraiment comme une hallucination. Cette espèce, comment vous dire, de [. . .] reflux de l’expédition d’Égypte, et puis aussi de remontée jusqu’à nous de l’Antiquité, tout cela qui envahit nos maisons, les Sphinx qui viennent se mettre aux pieds des fauteuils, les serpents qui s’enroulent aux candélabres, une Muse énorme qui vous tend un petit flambeau pour jouer à la bouillotte ou qui est tranquillement montée sur votre cheminée et s’accoude à votre pendule, et puis toutes les lampes pompéiennes, les petits lits en bateau qui ont l’air d’avoir été trouvés sur le Nil et d’où on s’attend à voir sortir Moïse, ces quadriges antiques qui galopent le long des tables de nuit. (Proust 1988 [1920–1921], vol. 2, 109)
Introduction*
The Empire Style often suffers from a bad press. It is criticized on aes- thetic grounds for its heaviness, lack of originality, nouveau riche indul- gence in costly materials, and too much gilt; it is dismissed for political reasons because of its association with Napoleon’s regime. Among
* The authors wish to thank Anja Snellman and Sigrid de Jong for making it possible to visit the Hôtel de Beauharnais; Jürgen Ebeling, Librarian of the Centre Allemand d’Histoire de l’Art in Paris; and Odile Nouvel- Kammerer, emerita curator at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, for their generous assistance and advice.
nineteenth- century authors its furniture had a reputation for coldness, doom, artificiality, and an uncanny ability to appear to become alive wit- tily summarized by Proust’s Duchesse de Guermantes quoted here.1 Art- historical research has been hindered by a notorious absence of sources by the main patrons, artists, or the public, and a lack of surviving artistic theory, and as a consequence tends to concentrate on identification, attri- bution, provenance, and iconographical analysis.2 In this chapter we will explore a different understanding of the Empire Style. We argue that this final flowering of Neoclassicism in a period in which the French had lived through the Revolution, abolished the monarchy, and saw the rise and double fall of Napoleon’s empire, offers a unique case to study the dynam- ics of the transformation of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian forms. Those who lived through these events often felt separated by an unbridgeable gap from the past. Stranded in the present they witnessed Napoleon’s attempt to create a new past by modeling the style of his rule almost compulsively on that of Augustus.3 And as in Augustus’s time, the con- quest of Egypt led to a considerable influx of Egyptian objects, which were imitated, represented, and integrated into other design styles.4 The Empire Style thus offers a very particular moment in the history of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian forms. It is the last attempt to create a new French court style, devised consciously, like the court ceremo- nial Napoleon reinstated, as a successor to the styles of the Bourbons. It is a reprisal of Greek and Roman forms, but renewed by the discovery of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and nourished by Piranesi’s widening of the range of forms available to designers to include Etruscan, Roman Republican, or Egyptian forms. Also, it announces nineteenth- century (neo) styles and eclecticism in its systematic combination of design styles and forms from different periods and places, both European and non- European, in one piece or one interior.
The Hôtel de Beauharnais is the laboratory chosen here to study what may be called, for the time being, the poetics of eclecticism at work.
1 Praz 1969 [1940], quoting Heine, Zola, Taine, Dickens, Flaubert, Montesquieu, Proust, and Henry James.
2 For summaries of the state of research and good bibliographies see Nouvel- Kammerer 2007–
2008; Samoyault 2009; Sarmant et al. 2015.
3 The phrase was coined by Fritzsche 2004. On Napoleon’s artistic program see Rosenberg and Dupuy- Vachey 1999– 2000; Samoyault 2007– 2008; Quéquet 2013– 2014; Sarmant et al. 2015, 185– 247.
4 See most recently “Du haut de ses pyramides. . .”. L’Éxpédition d’Égypte et la naissance de l’égyptologie, exh. cat. La Roche- sur- Yon: Musée (Grimal 2013– 2014), in particular the article by Quéquet; Humbert 2009; Pillepich 1999– 2000.
It is located in the Rue de Lille of the Faubourg Saint- Germain on the Left Bank in Paris, now the residence of the German ambassador to France, and was originally built by Germain Boffrand in 1713 for the eldest son of Colbert, the prime minister of Louis XIV. Acquired in 1803 by Eugène de Beauharnais (1781– 1824), the son of Alexandre and Joséphine de Beauharnais, who was adopted by Napoleon in 1796, it was redecorated from 1803 to 1809 by Jean Augustin Renard, Laurent- Edmé Bataille, and others. In Eugène’s absence as viceroy of Italy Joséphine and his sister Hortense oversaw most of the rebuilding and redecoration. It is one of the earliest monuments of Empire domestic architecture, combining Egyptianizing elements such as the portico of the corps de logis with furniture, chimney pieces, and wall paint- ings that are transformations of Roman and Egyptian motifs. Despite its great interest, comparatively little has been written about this town house, possibly because most archival material for the Empire period has not survived.5
The central position of those involved in the transformation of an eighteenth- century hôtel particulier into a statement of Empire artistic politics, combined with its excellent state of preservation, allow us to con- sider in some detail how such a princely town house functioned as a major moment of the Empire Style. In our contribution we will not, as most pre- vious studies have done, start from the perspective of the persons involved with it— the patron, architects, or designers— or focus on an iconographi- cal analysis of dominant motifs such as the swan or the eagle. Instead, we will develop an analysis of the building’s interior decoration that takes the notion of transformation as its starting point.
In the opening section we will briefly discuss the building’s history; in the next sections we will present its Empire interior decoration against the background of late eighteenth- century debates about ornament and inte- rior decoration, to obtain a clearer idea of what characterizes this new style. In the following section we will give some historical context to these decorations. Armed with all this background knowledge we will then in the final section zoom in on a number of conspicuous Egyptian elements in the interior.
5 See Hammer 1983; Pons 1989; Pillepich 1999– 2000; Leben and Ebeling 2005; Gaehtgens, Ebeling, and Leben 2007– 2008, with bibliography; and Ebeling 2013. The Centre Allemand d’Histoire de l’Art in Paris coordinates an ongoing project that focuses on the origins, authorship, and material condition of the interior, its restorations, and the history of its use until the present day. The results are published in Ebeling and Leben 2016.
Building History 1713– 1815
The Hôtel de Beauharnais started life as an early Regency town house, designed by Germain Boffrand (1667– 1754), who sold it in 1713 to Jean- Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Torcy, the eldest son of Louis XIV’s prime minister and himself Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1695– 1715.6 It was one of the first hôtels particuliers to be built in the Faubourg Saint Germain, and changed ownership several times during the eighteenth cen- tury to end in the possession of two speculators after 1789.
As the images in Jean Mariette’s Architecture Française (Paris 1727, 255– 260) show, it was a typical Parisian design of the Regency period of the variety that Boffrand did much to develop, but still adheres to the traditional enfilade lay- out of rooms (Figs. 2.1– 2.2).7 Not much remains of the original state, except the basic layout of the staircase and the outside walls, but its twin, the neighboring Hôtel de Seignelay, gives some idea of its original interior decoration.
Colbert de Torcy died in 1746; his wife in 1756. In 1766 the house was sold after an auction for the family’s creditors to Georges- Louis de Neufville, Duc de Villeroy. In the last decades of the Torcy period not much changed because of lack of money, but Villeroy commissioned some landscape paintings by Hubert Robert, which remained intact and in situ until the early nineteenth century. In 1794 Villeroy was guillotined.
The house was robbed of its boiseries, chimney pieces, and hangings, to leave only the walls. After a spell under the ownership of the speculators A. P. Bachelier and P.- J. Garnier, Eugène de Beauharnais acquired it in 1803 (de Goncourt 1992 [1864], 33–34). He went to live in the house in 1804, when he was not away in Italy. Laurent- Edmé Bataille (1758–
1819), at the time director of the royal furniture storage, was the architect who replaced Boffrand’s court facade portico by a plaster Egyptian portico (Fig. 2.3, see insert).8 Jörg Ebeling has recently argued that it should be attributed not to Bataille, but to Jean- Augustin Renard (1744– 1807), who had designed a similar pavillion for Talleyrand in Valençay (Fig. 2.4).
In this either Bataille or Renard may have followed the example of Jean- Baptiste Kléber (1753– 1800), Napoleon’s general, who originally trained
6 This overview of the building history is based on Hammer 1983, 9– 45, and Ebeling and Leben 2016. On Boffrand see Boffrand 2002, x– xiv.
7 See also Blondel 1752– 1756, vol. 1, 182, and the description of the interior by Germain Brice, Nouvelle Description de Paris (Paris 1725), vol. 4, 148; and in the 1752 edition vol. 4, 139.
8 On Bataille see Szambien 1989.
as an architect, and built an Egyptian temple near his Château d’Étupes.9 In any case, the portico was part of a campaign to scatter Egyptianizing mon- uments across Paris, which was also to include six fountains (only the one in the Rue de Sèvres by Bralle et Beauvallet survives), an Egyptian temple, an obelisk on the Pont Neuf, and to introduce reliefs of Isis, designed by
(A)
(B)
Fig. 2.1a and b. Hôtel de Torcy, courtyard facade (a) and the garden facade oriented toward the Seine (b), Germain Boffrand, from Jean Mariette’s Architecture Française, Paris, 1727.
Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, Paris.
9 See Curl 2005, 197– 198. These designs are documented in Krafft and Dubois 1809– 1810, 17 and 31– 35, and Humbert 1989, 40.
Jean- Guillaume Moitte in the pediments of the Cour Carré in the Louvre (Humbert 2009, 274; Hubert 1972). Because the excessive costs of the redecoration Napoleon decided in 1806 to take the building from Eugène, and used it from 1809 onwards to lodge important guests.
After the fall of Napoleon Eugène left for Munich in 1817, where he found hospitality at the court of his father- in- law, the King of Bavaria.
There, as the Duke of Leuchtenberg, he continued his predilection for
(A)
(B)
Fig. 2.2a and b. Hôtel de Torcy, plans of the ground floor (a) and first floor (b), Germain Boffrand, from Jean Mariette’s Architecture Française, Paris, 1727.
Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, Paris.
Fig. 2.4. Design for an Egyptian Temple and Portico for the Château de Valençay, Jean-Augustin Renard.
Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, Paris.
Egyptian motifs, transporting substantial parts of the Egyptian artifacts at Malmaison there, including the sumptuous set of chairs sporting remark- able Egyptianizing decorations, now in Palais Nymphenburg.10 Eugène’s archives relating to the Hôtel de Beauharnais were burned by his widow;
surviving documents have mainly ended up in Munich and Princeton. The house was sold in 1818 to Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia; since then it has remained in German possession, becoming the residence of the Prussian, subsequently German, ambassador. Restoration works started in 1820 under the direction of Jacob Ignaz Hittorff (1792– 1867), a for- mer student of Percier and Fontaine, who was appointed on the advice of Alexander von Humboldt, and worked on the building until his death.
During the tenure of successive ambassadors, above all that of Prince Hugo von Ridolin, various attempts were made to restore the Hôtel to its Empire state. Since 2000, consistent efforts have been made to retrieve the original Empire furniture, restore the fabrics and hangings, and bring back the original color schemes, which consisted of reds, greens, and blues on ochre backgrounds with black borders. Thus the Salon Vert on the ground floor has been restored in 2002, the Salon Cerise in 2009, and the Library on the ground floor in 2010.11
Major Interventions in the Period 1803– 1815
The original design by Boffrand follows the pattern of Regency aristo- cratic town houses, but still observes the quite static symmetrical division into series of antichambers, salons, and bedrooms that recall the enfilade system of the seventeenth century. Behind the wall opening on the Rue de Bourbon there are stables with their courtyard flanking the gate on the left, and kitchens with their garden on the right. The corps de logis consists of two floors and cellars. The original facade, with a short flight of steps leading to it, was a sober, quite flat temple front placed before a screen wall topped by a mansard roof, consisting of three bays with arches deco- rated with consoles (ground floor) and masks (first floor). The front over- looking the garden stretching out to the Seine was somewhat more ornate,
10 Grimm- Stadelmann and Grimm 2011, 165 and catalogue no. 531.
11 On the history of the building and its uses see Hammer 1983, 9– 57; Pons 1989, 89– 121;
Ebeling 2010, 43– 57; and Ebeling and Leben 2016. The research team at the Centre Allemand d’Histoire de l’Art working on the Hôtel has now established a complete list, with attributions, of the inventory during the Empire. The preparatory research showed that much more of the original Empire furniture and decoration remained than was previously expected. For a summary of the findings see Ebeling and Leben 2010 and 2016.
with a sculpted frieze and wrought iron balcony railings. The first floor was divided symmetrically by a gallery, with the staircase on the right, a grand cabinet and chambre de parade on the left, and a second antecham- ber, bedroom, and cabinet on the right.
On the ground floor the main changes made for Eugène include the replacement of the court portico by a stucco Egyptian temple portico gen- erally thought to be inspired by the portico in Denderah; the introduction in niches along the stairs of two life- size statues of Antinous, attributed to Pierre- Nicolas Beauvallet (Fig. 2.5) (Leben and Ebeling 2005, 70); the Salon Vert of Egyptian inspiration, and the introduction of a library, to the left of the vestibule, for which Boffrand’s original scheme with three open arcades had been replaced by a wall.
At the time of Eugène the large room functioning as picture gallery and ballroom, to the right of the vestibule, was decorated with green hang- ings bordered in the shade of ochre known as “Terre d’Égypte.” Originally there was an Egyptian chimney decorated with capitals sporting palmettes, Egyptian heads, etc. by Bataille, now replaced by another one in blue granite by Hittorff; the original design by Lucien- François Feuchère is preserved in a design now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (Fig. 2.6). A porphyry obelisk, one meter high, and two candelabra in the shape of “nubiennes agenouillées” stood on the chimney (Fig. 2.7). To the right of the vestibule is the escalier d’honneur, which dates back to the original Boffrand design, and a lifesize plaster statue of a woman holding a swan, put there by Eugène.
On the first floor, on the right- hand part of the building, connected to the ground floor by the escalier d’honneur, the second antechamber was transformed into a salon égyptien, which led into the dining room and large reception room. Its appearance under Eugène is very well docu- mented: “Terre d’Égypte” hangings bordered by strips of black velvet on a blue background; on them portraits of six sheiks that were Napoleon’s allies during the Egyptian campaign. A console- table with two winged caryatides by Marcion survives, as well as a palmette frieze that runs along the cornice of the entire room.
The “Grand Salon,” now Salon des Quatre Saisons, replaced the large gallery that originally ran along the entire garden front. Three large paint- ings by Hubert Robert representing Tivoli were replaced by four allego- ries of the seasons attributed to the studio of Girodet- Trioson (Fig. 2.8, see insert). The salon was decorated with a scheme of allusions to the four seasons, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve months, and four ages of man.
The original furniture by Bellangé survives in situ, such as the chimney and console table with its sphinxes and the pendulum and flanking vases by Thomire.
Fig. 2.5. Antinous, Pierre-Nicolas Beauvallet (attr.), turquoise marble, c. 1803– 1806.
Currently in the Musée Marmottan.
Fig. 2.6. Cheminée exécutée chez le Prince Eugène, frontal view, details and view of the chimney mantle surface, Lucien-François Feuchère, 1804– 1806.
The Salon de Musique, on the right side of the vestibule was also newly installed for Eugène (Fig. 2.9). It is directly connected to the Salon Cerise and the Salon des Quatre Saisons. Fixed elements such as chimneys, console- tables, and boiseries offer by their color, use of materials, con- tours, and polychromy very good evidence for the style of the 1790s.
The ceiling was redecorated by Hittorff for structural reasons; there is a wall covering in imitation green granite; figures of the Muses, larger than life, are depicted on the walls; birds and grotesques by Jacques Barrabant parade on the painted pilasters; below the muses are friezes with swans, festoons, and medusas.
Fig. 2.7. Kneeling Nubian Women Candelabra, gilt bronze, Lucien-François Feuchère, 1804– 1806.
Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte Paris.
Fig. 2.9. Hôtel de Beauharnais, Salon de Musique, with paintings attributed to the studio of Anne Girodet- Trioson, 1803– 1806.
Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte, Paris.
Eugène’s bedroom is a unique Empire ensemble, surviving almost entirely intact. The bed is based on a design by Percier and Fontaine.
Ceiling paintings behind glass recall Roman painting. Next to it, the cabi- net des bains is an illusionistic space with mirrors sending each other their reflections (Fig. 2.10).
Finally in the Turkish Boudoir the immersive atmosphere is continued by means of a suggestive series of scenes from Ottoman life, depicting the jour- ney of a woman from her paternal home to the Sultan’s harem (Fig. 2.11).
Next to these major changes in the layout, function, and decoration of the rooms, the new Empire furniture included two candelabra in the shape of Winged Victories by the bronze specialist Ravrio. Clocks were designed by Revel, chairs by Jacob- Desmalter and Marcion, and the bronze fixtures are attributed to Thomire.
Therefore, the overall impression created by the Hôtel de Beauharnais is that of a dazzling series of interiors, in which vivid blues, red, and greens are displayed on a background of the ochre variety called “Terre d’Égypte,”
with its black borders. The glossy silk that reflects the light of day and of the many candles lit at night contrasts with the background textiles that absorb light instead of reflecting it. The newly restored interior, like the rooms at Malmaison, or the Empire apartments at Fontainebleau or Compiègne, strikes the visitor above all by the sheer effect of its brilliance. The light strikes the
gilt surfaces of the bronze appliqués that are scattered over tables, beds, chairs, chimneys, or wash stands; the gilt stucco moulures of friezes run- ning along walls, ceilings, and doors dematerialize their material supports.
Instead of representing the functions of columns or roofs as they would have done in previous styles, they transport the viewer into distant mythological realms. The larger- than- life paintings of the seasons and muses add to this atmosphere of illusion, since they are very similar, in the way they seem to come forward from their hazy background, to the way figures appear and take tangible form from a background of smoke and gauze in phantasma- gorias and other multimedial shows, a new theatrical genre that was born at exactly the same time as the Empire Style.12 The figure of Winter, for
Fig. 2.10. Hôtel de Beauharnais, Cabinet des bains with reflecting mirrors, 1803– 1806.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York/ Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte, Paris.
12 On the rise of these new genres see Warner 2006, 147– 159, and Sawicki 1999. For eighteenth- century accounts of such immersive mirror spaces see for instance Casanova 1960, vol. 4, 48, describing a room “toute tapissée de glaces:” “Elle était surprise du prestige qui lui faisait voir partout, et en même temps, malgré qu’elle se tint immobile, sa personne en cent différents points de vue. Ses portraits multipliés que les miroirs lui offraient à la clarté de toutes les bougies placées auprès de lui présentaient un spectacle nouveau qui la rendait amoureuse d’elle- même.” We are much indebted to Alexia Lebeurre for this reference.