The Caesar of Paris

by Susan Jaques

  Initially, Renaissance medals were cast using methods similar to those for bronze sculpture—a process in which molten metal was poured into a carved mold. Striking, a technique used in antiquity to produce coins, required special tools and physical force to shape a heated metal disk between two engraved dies. Thanks to a new screw press, striking made a resurgence in the early sixteenth century.23 Rome’s long history with medals continued with the popes who began minting medals in the 1470s to commemorate events like the opening of the Porta Sacra, jubilee years, and various stages of St. Peter’s.

  Unlike coins, which were struck at mints using specific materials and specific weights, medals were commemorative, produced in various sizes, weights, and materials.24 Often designed by famous painters and sculptors, beautifully crafted in lead, bronze, silver, or gold, or combinations of these precious metals, medals were lasting works of art, writes Aimee Ng.25

  Starting in the sixteenth century with Henri IV, French medals conveyed a similar propaganda message to that of Rome’s emperors. Henri IV’s sculptor Guillaume Dupré began using casting for medals and larger medallions, elevating the technique to a sophisticated level that approached striking.26 In 1662, Louis XIV’s minister Colbert began an ambitious “Metallic History” to glorify the Sun King’s reign. Responding to Colbert about the project, the critic Chapelain wrote: “As for . . . Medals . . . they are an invention which the Greeks and Romans used to immortalize the memory of the heroic actions of their princes, of their captains, and their emperors, because of the incorruptibility of the metals of which they were comprised . . . I strongly approve of your using them . . . to perpetuate those of the King, as it is a method which has been used at all times for a similar purpose and is very suitable to the royal dignity.”27

  Colbert enlisted painters, historians, poets, engravers, and medalists to design and produce the medals. In addition to a Roman emperor and a general, Louis XIV was portrayed as Apollo driving the chariot of the sun and even the sun itself with his motto Nec Pluribus Impar, “not unequal to many.” A luxurious illustrated volume (Médailles sur les principaux événements du règne de Louis le Grand) featured some 286 medals highlighting the king’s life and achievements.

  Medalists continued to use ancient historical and mythological figures throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. For example, to celebrate his recapture of Padua in 1690, Francesco II of Carrara had medals struck to imitate Roman sestertii, comparing himself and his father to Roman emperors.28 The Grand Dukes of Tuscany commissioned a series of cast medals depicting political and cultural figures of the day. Members of the ruling Medici dynasty, foreign dignitaries, and scientists appeared on the obverse; their lives or characters featured on the reverse. By the Enlightenment, medals, also known as commemorative coins, became prized collector’s items.

  In the second half of the eighteenth century, Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa also fashioned her image with an ambitious medal program. As her State Chancellor Wenzel Anton (prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg) wrote her in 1770: “Of all the engravings, that of medals in art is the most important: it is intended to preserve for posterity the memory of festive events, [and] the monarchs’ remarkable deeds and orders . . .”29 The medal was a handy way to promote the Habsburg’s connection with Rome. Maria Theresa was portrayed in the guise of a helmeted Athena and Minerva. In her final death medal, she is shown in profile wearing a widow’s veil after the empresses of Rome.

  Augustus and successive Roman emperors minted coins to market their heroic image and position their military campaigns in a positive light. Napoleon did the same. “He [Napoleon] looked like an antique medallion,” observed Comtesse de Rémusat at his Paris coronation.30 Napoleon fully exploited the medium, commissioning more medals than Louis XV and Louis XVI combined.31

  From the start of his meteoric career, Napoleon used commemorative medals to fashion a heroic reputation. To publicize his stunning victories in the Italian campaign, the young Corsican general ordered the “Five Battles” series struck at the Milan Mint. Four of the five propaganda medals were designed by Andrea Appiani. In a decorative practice started in Renaissance Italy, Appiani would incorporate larger versions of these medals into the frieze of his Napoleonic fresco at Milan’s Royal Palace.32

  The Po-Adda-Mincio medal marked the crossing of three rivers by the Army of Italy, leading to the French occupation of Lombardy. Napoleon is featured on horseback, leading his troops across the Adda Bridge at Lodi. According to John L. Connolly, the image of the bridge evoked well-known Roman legends, including Horatius Cocles’s defense of the Sublician Bridge, Constantine crossing the Milvian Bridge, and Trajan defeating the Dacians by crossing the Danube on Appolodorus’s bridge.33 The series was duplicated with small changes at mints in Lyon and Paris, helping spread Napoleon’s fame.

  Medals also commemorated Napoleon’s founding of various Italian republics between 1797 and 1799, including the short-lived democratic republic in Venice, the Ligurian Republic in Genoa and Pisa, Cisalpine Republic in Milan and Lombardy, Roman Republic, and Parthenopean Republic of Naples. Napoleon borrowed the name “Cisalpine” from a province governed by Julius Caesar. Napoleon also marked the Treaty of Campo Formio with Austria, the Egypt campaign, and Battle of Marengo with medals.

  As first consul, Napoleon continued to choose medal subjects—from the Battle of the Pyramids to his failed assassination attempt in December 1800. That year, Bertrand Andrieu designed a dramatic medal based on Jacques-Louis David’s famous painting of Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass. Like David, Andrieu set his miniature version against a dramatic setting with Napoleon on a rearing horse. But as Stephen Scher describes, the medal version depicts Napoleon clutching lightning bolts in his raised hand like Jupiter, blasting passage for his army through the dangerous pass.34

  Napoleon’s medals teemed with classical allusions. One example by engraver Benjamin Duvivier (Louis XVI’s Engraver at the Mint), depicted Napoleon as peacemaker, triumphant general, and patron of the arts. The obverse shows a portrait profile of Napoleon circled by “Bonaparte gen al. en chef de l’armée Franc SE. en Italie.” On the reverse, Napoleon rides a rearing horse led by Prudence and Valor, while Victory extends a laurel crown over him—like a Roman triumph. In her other hand, Victory holds a statue of Apollo Belvedere, representing the antiquities seized as war booty. In Napoleon’s right hand is an olive branch, representing the Treaty of Campo Formio.35

  In 1799, a veritable treasure chest of medals from the Vatican Medagliere arrived in Paris. A year earlier, French troops under General Berthier filled hemp bags with rare coins and medals from the papal numismatic cabinet. The exceptional collection (today totaling over three hundred thousand Greek, Roman, and Papal coins and medals) got its start in the mid-sixteenth century when the Cardinal librarian, the future Pope Marcellus I, donated his collection to the Vatican Library.

  Clement XII (Corsini, 1730–40) established the Library’s Medagliere, acquiring over three hundred Greek and Roman medals from Cardinal Alessandro Albani (Clement is also the pope who famously placed fig leaves on the Vatican’s classical nude sculptures). Popes Benedict XIV and Clement XIV expanded the papal coin and medal collection through prestigious acquisitions. In addition to donating part of his personal coin collection to the Medagliere, Pius VI bought the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden in 1794. After the French cleaned out the Medagliere, Pius started over, acquiring the collection of P. M. Vitali, featuring mainly Roman coins.

  Medal production was a highly bureaucratic process. Case in point was a medal to mark Napoleon’s return from Egypt. Before gaining Napoleon’s approval, the medal went through some twenty revisions.36 The most popular subject was Napoleon himself. Produced in large numbers, mainly jetons, these medals usually featured Napoleon in profile and an inscription or legend on the face and a representative inscription on the reverse, celebrating the young general’s stunning victories. The self-promoting medals contributed to Napoleon’s tremendous popular
ity, which allowed him to depose the Directory regime.

  As first consul, Napoleon turned over his public relations effort to Dominique-Vivant Denon, naming him director of the Monnaie des Médailles, the medals Mint. As part of a major reorganization, Denon relocated the Mint from the Musée Napoléon to rue Guénégaud. The Mint became a state-controlled monopoly with a March 1804 decree prohibiting the striking of medals or jetons anywhere except the Monnaie. During the first four years of his post, Denon ordered the minting of nineteen medals. The first of Denon’s medals, Aux arts la victoire, was struck to mark Napoleon’s August 1803 visit to the Louvre to admire the newly arrived treasure, Florence’s Medici Venus. The medal featured Napoleon’s profile on the obverse and the renowned antique marble on the reverse.

  Another effective propaganda tool was the new germinal franc, created in 1803 to address a coin shortage and the circulation of counterfeit money. Named after the month in the Republican calendar, the first coins featured the first consul’s profile and later Napoleon I in the guise of a Roman emperor with the inscription “Emperor Napoleon” writes Karine Huguenaud. Half and quarter Francs, as well as two and five Franc pieces were minted using the same metal; twenty and forty Franc pieces were made of gold.37

  In 1806, after Napoleon’s victory at Austerlitz, Denon conceived a far-reaching medal series in the tradition of Louis XIV. As Napoleon described, the “Histoire métallique de Sa Majesté” was created “for the perpetuation of the memory of the most important actions.” Among the best-preserved objects from antiquity, medals helped immortalize emperors and military leaders. Now Napoleon would seal his rule for posterity, using medals as a historical record of his achievements.

  Denon elevated medallic art by adding it to the prestigious Prix de Rome competition founded by Louis XIV. Medalists were given two seats at the French Academy in Rome alongside painters, sculptors, and architects. One of the few medalists who made the transition from the ancien régime was Bordeaux-born Jean-Bertrand Andrieu. In 1789, he engraved a famous medal of the Storming of the Bastille. According to Mark Jones, Andrieu’s portrait of Napoleon as an emotionless Roman hero became the standard obverse of Denon’s Medallic History.38 After the coronations in Paris and Milan, the standard observe also included “Napoleon Emp. et Roi.”

  One early work in the series records Napoleon’s arrival at Frejus in October 1799. On one side, his ship is shown arriving, with the British ships he’s avoided in the distance; the flip side depicts the Roman god of good fortune. As Jones explains, these early medals evoked Classicism—from Dumarest’s medal with the head of Athena and Jean-Pierre Droz’s Peace of Amiens and return of Astraea medal of 1802 to Brenet’s A la Fortune Conservatrice struck in commemoration of the preparation for an invasion of England.39

  The analogy between the Napoleonic and Roman Empires was made very clear. For example, a medal depicting the resumption of the flags at Innsbruck was modeled after a Roman medal representing Germanicus retaking an eagle from the Germanic tribe of Marses removed from the Roman legions commanded by Varus.40 Coins and medals featured the laurel wreath-toting Napoleon in profile, often the spitting image of Augustus.

  Napoleon’s coronation inspired several medals. Among them was a medal commemorating the pope’s attendance. Denon’s protégé Droz created an obverse featuring Pius in profile, wearing the traditional tiara and ecclesiastical orfrois; the reverse depicts Notre Dame. Napoleon is suggested by the Gregorian and revolutionary dating of the ceremony and the inscription imperator sacratus.41

  In February 1806, Denon announced a medal series relating to the Austria campaign, starting with the camp of Boulogne. Multiple copies of the sixteen-medal series were struck and given to French dignitaries, ambassadors, and foreign princes. A copy of the series was also placed inside the base of the Vendôme Column as a record for posterity.

  For medals of the Battle of Austerlitz, Denon decided on “Charlemagne’s scepter with a thunderbolt.” The battle was symbolized by an imperial scepter armed with the wings and flashes of lightning. “This medal represents an empty throne,” explained Denon. “The eagle that is in the air, and which comes out from under the royal mantle, is the emblem of the watch. The hand of justice, which is on the throne, expresses that justice has remained. And the lightning that is above the throne indicates the power that threatens the guilty.”42

  Denon also oversaw production of a medal by Bertrand Andrieu with the double profiles of Napoleon and Charlemagne. To celebrate France’s alliance with Saxony, Andrieu designed a silver version of the medal with a bearded Charlemagne overlapping with Napoleon in a laurel wreath, and the legend “Napoleon. emp., Charlemagne. emp.” The obverse featured the paired portraits of Saxon Prince Vitikind, created the first Duke of Saxony by Charlemagne, and Frederick Augustus, named king of Saxony by Napoleon.

  Denon kept close tabs on medal production—from the subjects, iconography, and compositions to the hiring of die engravers and instructions. Napoleon was also involved, reviewing medal designs during his military campaigns. Denon usually first submitted his idea and description for a medal, then a finished drawing, and finally a completed proof. At each stage, Napoleon weighed in, ordering changes or requiring substitution of other subjects or designs.

  Napoleon was brutally frank. On one occasion at Saint-Cloud, after Denon showed him several medal prototypes, he hurled one of the gold medals to the back of the room. Denon explained that the medal showed the French eagle strangling a leopard, representing England. “Cheap flatterer,” Napoleon reportedly replied, “how dare you say that the French eagle is strangling the English leopard? I can’t put even a fishing boat to sea without the English seizing it. It’s rather this leopard that is strangling the French eagle.”43

  Subject matter for medals was never in short supply with Napoleon’s continued campaigns. To prevent medals from wearing out too fast, Denon saw they were done in strong relief, not low relief. Small, strong, and mass-produced, medals were a cost-effective propaganda tool. But the medals’ small size required compressed, highly symbolic images; the circular format of the propagandistic reverses presented a design challenge. Following an iconography of ancient Roman coins, using ancient allegories and symbols, the medals reflected the most important events in Napoleon’s personal and public life—from his birthday, second marriage, and birth of his son to his coronation, military victories, and treaties. An assassination attempt on Napoleon’s life and his introduction of a smallpox vaccination also inspired medals.

  Since the Italian Renaissance, the design and production of medals had been a collaborative, multi-phased process. Napoleonic medals continued this tradition. Among the hand-picked painters, illustrators, sculptors, and architects were Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret (of Vendôme Column fame), Charles Percier, Antoine-Denis Chaudet, Auguste Boucher Desnoyers, Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard (son of the celebrated painter), Pierre Lafitte, Jean-Baptiste Lepère, Charles Meynier (Arc du Carrousel), Pierre-Paul Prud’hon, and Benjamin Zix. To produce the medals, Denon assembled a team of designers and engravers, matching their skills to the various subjects. Images were adapted into designs by professional draftsmen and then executed for die engraving by higher paid craftsmen.

  Some of the medals conceived by Denon are engraved with “Denon direxit.” According to Antony Griffiths, Denon may have felt justified because of his high level of involvement in the design and production process. In addition to hiring designers and engravers, Denon thought up compositions and issued detailed instructions based on his classical knowledge. For some projects, writes Griffiths, Denon bypassed a designer altogether, supplying the composition to the engraver directly from a coin in his own collection.44

  Napoleon presented medals on state occasions, as awards and diplomatic gifts and as signs of his favor. Special editions struck in precious metals were sent to foreign allies. Many were struck in copper covered with a patina to prevent erosion and to add a bronze-like appearance. A single copy of most medals was also
struck in gold for Napoleon’s personal collection. The ratio of silver to bronze medals was nearly eight to one. In parallel with the Paris Mint, Napoleonic medals continued to be struck in Milan until 1810, mainly after designs by Appiani.

  During the Napoleonic era, Denon oversaw the production of some 130 medals. Though rulers such as Louis XIV and Maria Theresa used medals extensively, often incorporating classical mythology, Napoleon’s medal program was completely unique. Ushering in a more sophisticated neoclassical style with iconography resembling the frieze compositions of ancient coins, Napoleonic medals became a permanent reference to antiquity. To this, Denon added the new symbols of the Empire, the N and the eagle. The strict classical style modeled on Roman coinage and medals powerfully tied Napoleon to the Caesars.

  PART FIVE

  PRINCIPATE

  “Power and pageantry go hand in hand. I had to project an image, to appear grave, to establish rules of etiquette. Otherwise, people would have slapped me on the shoulder daily.”

  —Napoleon Bonaparte

  ONE

  CURIA REGIS

  After being proclaimed emperor on May 18, 1804, Napoleon established an imperial household consisting of six departments or services, each run by a Grand Officer. By mid-August, Napoleon’s architect Pierre Fontaine wrote:

  “The interior of the Household now presents the shape and appearance of a sovereign’s residence. The Emperor is surrounded by civil and military Grand Officers who take his orders, administer the various departments at his service, and represent him on his behalf . . . He ordered the creation of a great number of chamberlains, equerries, ladies of the robes, attendants and others under the orders of the Grand Officers in each department, both for the Emperor and the Empress. There is talk of a coronation ceremony.”1