The Caesar of Paris

by Susan Jaques

  To give the sixty-four-year old pontiff ample travel time, the original coronation date of November 9, the anniversary of Napoleon’s coup d’état, was pushed back to December 2. But the postponement was worth the wait. By requiring Pius to leave Rome for the coronation, Napoleon was about to outdo Charlemagne. For the first time since Charlemagne’s 800 coronation, Western Europe would have two emperors.

  Napoleon chose the Château de Fontainebleau to host the Pope. Located some thirty-five miles southeast of Paris, the historic château represented what Napoleon called “the real abode of kings, the house of ages.” But like most of the royal palaces, Fontainebleau had been ransacked during the Revolution. Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine, along with Calmelet, administrator of imperial furniture, and Duroc, grand marshal of the Palace, quickly went to work. Percier had a great interest in Fontainebleau, having visited several times after studying in Italy. Jacob-Desmalter produced Empire-style furnishings; the Garde-Meuble also supplied confiscated furniture and second-hand pieces.

  At Napoleon’s request, Dominique-Vivant Denon chose paintings for Fontainebleau from the Musée Napoléon, including two large canvases by Hubert Robert for Louis XVI’s dining room. For the Pope’s suite, he selected Caspar Netscher’s Meleager and Atalanta with the Boar’s Head, based on Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Divided into two apartments, the eleven-room papal suite comprised the first floor of the Gros Pavilion and west wing of the Cour de la Fontaine, known as the Queen Mother’s Wing.

  Fontaine, who had described the château in 1803 as being in a “state of extraordinary degradation and abandonment,” congratulated himself on finishing the project in a record time for the Pope’s arrival. “The apartments were furnished as though by magic [in nineteen days], thanks to the care and provident foresight of [Grand] Marshal Duroc,” wrote Fontaine.2 “Finally, the inhabitants of Fontainebleau, overwhelmed with so many new things, cannot prevent themselves from admitting that under the monarchy they never saw the castle more brilliant or better furnished.”3 Napoleon would continue refurbishing Fontainebleau in 1807, 1809, and 1810.

  It was France’s Renaissance king François I who turned the royal hunting lodge into an elegant art-filled château. In 1540, he dispatched painter Francesco Primaticcio to Rome to buy antiquities and have molds made of famous Vatican sculptures. Ironically, Fontainebleau’s bronze replicas included many of the famous marbles recently pilfered by Napoleon, including Ariadnes (then Cleopatra), the Laocoön, Apollo Belvedere, Cnidian Venus, Commodus Hercules, and the Tiber. A plaster cast of Marcus Aurelius’s horse from the Capitoline was installed in the servants’ courtyard at Fontainebleau, later known as the Cour du Cheval Blanc, Court of the White Horse.

  Like François I, Napoleon was attracted to the rich forest surrounding the château, over three hundred acres. In a reference to Joséphine’s passion for natural English-style gardens, he told Fontaine: “How silly to spend fortunes creating little lakes, little rocks and little rivers . . . my jardin a l’angalise is the forest at Fontainebleau and I want no other.”4

  On the afternoon of November 25, 1802, Napoleon rode on horseback through Fontainebleau’s forest to meet the papal cortege. As Napoleon dismounted in his green hunting outfit, his honored guest dressed in white robes and silk shoes descended from his carriage into the mud. After exchanging greetings, the two men entered a waiting carriage. Joséphine welcomed Pius on the steps of Fontainebleau.

  When Charlemagne received Pope Leo III in his palace at Paderborn, he hosted a great feast complete with sparkling wine and gifts.5 After his coronation, Charlemagne is believed to have also given the Pope a life-size silver crucifix. Now it was Pius VII who presented gifts to his imperial hosts at a banquet at Fontainebleau.

  At Pius’s request, sculptor Antonio Canova acquired dozens of presents for the imperial couple and their court. Canova himself created the most important gift—a portrait bust of the pope. “The presentation of such an image to Napoleon was not without an ulterior motive; it was intended to confirm the sitter’s sovereignty, which was neither temporal nor limited, but universal,” explains Guilhem Scherf. “Perhaps the slight smile of the patient diplomat (the Pope) can be glimpsed . . . the soft, extremely fine way in which the sculpture has been modelled contrasts with the brilliant, almost Bernini-esque carving of the hair.”6

  Despite the political challenges facing his sitter, Canova found Pius serene and gentle. He depicted him with a skullcap on his head, an ermine-lined stole over his buttoned cape embroidered with crosses and stars (the Chiaramonti emblem) with the Benedictine motto PAX. The motto was repeated under each cross, identifying Pius and referring to his role as peacemaker. To emphasize the pope’s inner life, Canova left the eyes smooth, without pupils. In Stendhal’s opinion, the bust had “too much ideal grace.”7

  Other imperial gifts included cameos set on boxes, medallions, and bracelets, mosaics, silverware, and precious marbles. Joséphine received an alabaster box, a Carrara marble cameo, and the Atlanta Cameo opera di prima ordine by Giuseppe Girometti, one of Rome’s top engravers. Girometti’s antique-style cameos were inspired by the great Hellenistic carvers and original Roman sculptures. Napoleon also received cameos—Girometti’s agate cameo medallion of Achilles and a precious onyx cameo depicting the continence of Scipio.

  Another ancient Roman art form featured in other gifts for Napoleon. In the sixteenth century, mosaics had been revived by the Vatican Workshops to decorate St. Peter’s Basilica and other Rome churches. In the late eighteenth century, the workshops began producing highly prized secular pieces. For the pietre dure or hard stones technique, cut marble and rare and semiprecious stones such as agates, amethyst, chalcedony, lapis lazuli, and onyx were used to create colorful mosaics.

  For Napoleon’s vases, mosaicist Nicola de Vecchis was inspired by ancient Roman mosaics, possibly from Baths of the Seven Sages. Each white marble vase (1795 and 1800) featured a band of vertical acanthus leaves carved in relief below a band inlaid with jasper and lapis lazuli palmettes. Above, a micromosaic frieze depicted two griffins each holding a vase. A candelabrum between the griffins supported two festoons of flowers, the ends of which were carried by a pair of birds. For the waisted neck and volute handles, de Vecchis used the pietre dure technique of inlaid colorful hardstones.

  Also for Napoleon, Canova chose a graceful neoclassical triumphal-arch clock (1804) from the studio of Giacomo Raffaelli. The triumphal arch was especially appropriate for the victorious military leader. The clock’s white marble, a reference to classical antiquity, set off the micromosaic and pietre dure decoration in amethyst, agate, gasper, lapis lazuli, garnet, and labradorite.

  Raffaelli mounted a timepiece by Swiss-born clockmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet on top of a triumphal arch made of red and white antique marble. Four amethyst columns topped by Corinthian capitals flanked the arch. Between these columns were two micromosaic panels depicting military trophies. Raffaelli topped the clock dial with bronzes—a military trophy flanked by winged figures of Victory and Fame, and a cockerel, vulture, wolf, and dog standing watch. In the center and beneath the arch stood a gilt-bronze statuette of Mars, god of war.8

  Pius’s gifts would become part of Joséphine’s collection at Malmaison. Impressed by Giacomo Raffaelli’s clock, Napoleon encouraged him to set up a workshop near the imperial court in Milan. Micromosaics became fashionable in Rome during the last decade of the eighteenth century. In 1804, Napoleon recruited Vatican Workshop veteran Francesco Belloni to start a mosaics school in Paris that became the École Impériale de Mosaïque.

  After three days at Fontainebleau, on November 28, the papal party left for Paris. The pope’s quarters at the Tuileries’s Pavillon de Flore overlooked the Seine and featured an antechamber, dining room, salon, chapel, throne room, bedchamber, study, and bathroom. On the floors above, his entourage occupied some fifty-six rooms.

  Joséphine, who’d almost been left out of the coronation, now scored a personal triumph. She had wed
Napoleon in a 1776 civil ceremony, leaving their marriage invalid in the eyes of the newly reestablished Roman Catholic Church in France. At Fontainebleau, Joséphine confided to Pius that she and Napoleon had not had a religious ceremony. The pope assured her that he would insist on one as a condition of his taking part in the Sacre.

  On the afternoon of December 1, a reluctant Napoleon tied the knot with Joséphine in a secret religious ceremony in the chapel at the Tuileries. Cardinal Fesch officiated; Talleyrand and Berthier were witnesses. Joséphine wasn’t taking any chances. Two days later, she obtained a certificate of legality from Fesch.

  At midnight on December 1, 1804, cannon salvoes announced the coronation at Notre Dame Cathedral. Starting at six o’clock that morning, bells chimed as workers rushed to clear snow from the Tuileries Palace and salt the icy streets along the procession route. Carpenters rushed to put final touches on cathedral decorations and repair the outdoor rotunda, damaged during the night’s snow storm.

  Around seven o’clock, five hundred musicians and singers arrived and took their places in two orchestras and choirs on the temporary grandstands at both ends of the cathedral’s crossing. Directing the large ensemble was Jean-François Le Sueur, who had also composed several marches and motets for the ceremony.9

  Meanwhile, deputations from the cities of France, the Army and Navy, the legislative assemblies, the judiciary, the administrative corps, the Legion of Honor, the Institute, and chambers of commerce left different meeting places around the city and met at Notre Dame. At eight o’clock, members of the Senate, Council of State, the Legislative body, and Tribunat arrived, followed by the diplomatic corps at nine. Tellingly, Austria’s Count Cobenzl was a no-show.

  Patriotic red, white, and blue bunting, artificial flowers, and green branches adorned the houses along the procession route: papier-mâché eagles decorated the Champs-Elysées.10 Half a million Parisians braved the frigid weather to catch a glimpse of the forty carriage procession. Onlookers hung out of windows from rented bedrooms and balconies.

  Napoleon had organized the procession from the Tuileries to Notre Dame with military precision. The elaborate coronation would cost three million francs, including about 380,000 francs for the coaches and equipages.11 At nine, Pius VII descended the steps of the Pavillon de Flore with his retinue. Clad in white robes, he took his place in a decorated carriage topped by a large papal tiara and drawn by eight horses. Two squadrons of cavalry, some 108 dragoons, accompanied his ten carriages. By tradition, the pope’s carriage was preceded by a nuncio riding a white mule and carrying the gilt papal crucifix. But found at the last minute, the mule was gray instead of white. Its presence in the midst of the pomp and pageantry caused great amusement among the crowd.

  By ten-thirty, the pontifical cortege reached Notre Dame. At the entrance to the archbishop’s palace, Pius was welcomed by Cardinal du Belloy, Archbishop of Paris. After donning his tiara and ceremonial robes, Pius made a dramatic entrance into the cathedral to Le Sueur’s motet, Tu es Petrus. First came the apostolic cross, escorted by seven acolytes carrying golden candlesticks, followed by one hundred bishops and archbishops, then the pope escorted by seven cardinals. On the left hand side of the choir near the high altar, Pius took a seat on the papal throne. He would wait nearly two hours in the frigid sanctuary for the imperial couple to arrive.12

  Around the same time, the imperial cortege left the Tuileries to a salvo of artillery. Napoleon’s brother-in-law Joachim Murat, governor of Paris, led four squadrons of carabinieri, mounted chasseurs, and Mamelukes of the imperial guard. Next came four carriages with high-ranking military officers, three coaches of ministers, a coach for the grand chamberlain, grand squire, and master of ceremonies, a coach for the arch-chancellor and arch treasurer, a coach for the princesses, a coach for Napoleon and his brothers Joseph and Louis, a coach for the chaplain, grand marshal of the palace and grand veneur, and a coach for Joséphine’s ladies.

  Eight horses drew Napoleon’s new imperial coach, adorned with gold, emblazoned with a capital N and three gilt eagles holding a golden crown. From the Place du Carrousel, the imperial procession passed rue Saint-Honoré and rue du Roule. Crossing the Pont Neuf, the carriages proceeded along the Quai des Orfèvres leading into the rue Saint-Louis, the rue du Neuf, and finally the rue du Parvis Notre-Dame. It took an hour for all twenty-five carriages to reach the cathedral.

  After eleven, Napoleon and Joséphine entered the tent at the entrance to the archbishop’s palace to change from their petit habillement into their formal robes. To keep warm, Joséphine and her ladies-in-waiting had worn cashmere shawls, which they removed before entering the cathedral.13

  At the entrance of Notre Dame, Cardinal du Belloy sprinkled Napoleon and Joséphine with holy water before leading them inside to Le Sueur’s Coronation march. At the east end of the cathedral, the imperial couple stopped in front of the high altar in the center of the choir. David watched as Napoleon took his place on a throne at the right of the altar, and Joséphine sat to his right on a smaller throne five steps below.

  Among the thousands of invited guests that day was Jacques-Louis David. Napoleon had personally commissioned the artist to memorialize his coronation. Sketchpad in hand, David navigated his way through the cathedral to a ringside seat. But the class-conscious master of ceremonies, Louis-Philippe de Ségur, was not a fan of the revolutionary artist who had voted for Louis XVI’s execution in 1792. When Ségur tried moving David into the upstairs galleries where he couldn’t see the procession or the crowning, a fight broke out. The irate painter managed to reclaim his seat on the second level of Percier and Fontaine’s tribune at the transept, giving him a good view of the ceremony.14

  As the imperial couple entered the choir, Pius descended from his throne, stood at the altar, and began the Veni Creator Spiritus. While this hymn was sung by the choir, Napoleon and Joséphine knelt in prayer. Next, Napoleon gave the regalia he was carrying—the hand of justice, scepter, crown of Charlemagne, sword, necklace of the Legion of Honor, ring, and orb—to his marshals Perignon, Kellerman, LeFevre, Bernadotte, Beauharnais, and Berthier.

  David continued sketching as Pius blessed the kneeling couple with the triple benediction taken from the coronation rite of Reims. With the choir singing Le Sueur’s motet Unxerunt Salomonem, Napoleon and Joséphine approached the high altar where they received the sacred coronation unction on their foreheads and both hands. From there, Mass began to music commissioned from Neapolitan composer Giovanni Paisiello. Recently removed as chapel master of Tuileries for political reasons, Paisiello had suggested Le Sueur as his successor.

  After the Mass, Napoleon climbed the steps to the altar alone. Rather than letting Pius do the honors as expected, he seized the Charlemagne crown. Then facing the congregation, he held it in the air before placing it on his own head. By anointing himself, Napoleon declared that he was even more powerful than Charlemagne who had been crowned by the pope. “My crown proceeds from God,” Napoleon wrote, “and from the will of the people, and only to God and my people am I answerable for it.”15 For Pius, who had traveled to France against the wishes of his advisers, Napoleon’s stunning gesture was a humiliating snub. His role in the coronation was reduced to a benediction.

  Returning to the altar, Napoleon replaced the “Charlemagne” crown on his head with Biennais’s gold laurel wreath. Next, Napoleon picked up a smaller crown and walked to the kneeling Joséphine. As he held her crown up, Napoleon stated that he was crowning Joséphine Empress of the French as his wife, not by her own right. “After picking up her smaller crown, he first put it on his own head and then transferred it to hers. . . .” wrote Laure Junot, Duchess of Abrantès. “His manner was almost playful. He took great pains to arrange this little crown, which was set over Joséphine’s diadem. He put it on, then took it off, and finally put it on again.”16

  Napoleon and Joséphine slowly moved to the west end of the cathedral accompanied by a procession comprised of Pius VII, princes, grand dignitar
ies, grand officers, princesses, ladies-in-waiting, pages, heralds, and bailiffs bearing the honors of Charlemagne. They climbed the red carpeted steps to the elaborate dais spanning the entire width of the nave. During this process, Napoleon stopped an altercation among his sisters Elisa, Pauline, and Caroline about carrying Joséphine’s train. The weight of his own robes nearly caused him to fall backward as he climbed the staircase.

  Napoleon and Joséphine took their seats on a pair of thrones under a huge Roman-style triumphal arch with faux marble columns and Corinthian capitals topped by eagles. The princes and princesses, dignitaries and officials gathered below. Climbing to the top of the dais, Pius VII raised his hands and blessed the couple with words from the Reims rite: “May God confirm you upon this throne, and may Christ cause you to reign with Him in His eternal kingdom.”

  After kissing Napoleon on the cheek, Pius turned toward the congregation and repeated Leo III’s words from Charlemagne’s coronation: “Vivat Imperator in aeternum”—“May the Emperor live forever!”17 The singing of the Vivat by the Abbé Roze followed and Pius was accompanied back to his throne. The Mass continued with the Te Deum by Paisiello and the Gospel sung in Latin and Greek.

  Following the Mass, Pius retired to the sacristy. Surrounded by his court, generals, and dignitaries, Napoleon raised his right hand and placed his left hand on the gospel held by Cardinal Fesch. With the constitutional oath, Napoleon promised to uphold the constitution and preserve the gains of the Revolution. The oath ended with the words: “Napoleon Emperor by the grace of God and the constitution.”18