Background
Dominique Vivant Denon was born on January 1, 1747 in Chalon-sur-Saône.
(Dominique-Vivant Denon was a lover of the Empress Josephi...)
Dominique-Vivant Denon was a lover of the Empress Josephine, a compulsive collector, the first director of the Louvre museum and Bonaparte's adviser on artistic matters. Indeed, Denon was known as 'Napoleon's eye'. But the man who impressed the emperor with his courteous manners and his talent for pornographic drawing was also the primary force behind revealing Egypt's civilisation to an astonished Europe. Invited to accompany Bonaparte during the French Expedition to Egypt - a staging post in Napoleon's campaign to wrest India from the British - Denon was forcibly struck by Egypt's architecture. With often only a few minutes to record the scene before him, he would sketch under fire. On one occasion he worked for sixteen hours, while the windblown sand caused his eyelids to bleed. Upon his return to France, Denon published Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt. His insightful and deeply humane volume became an instant bestseller. Hitherto no one had suspected that Egypt's rich and mature civilisation existed. In this book Terence M. Russell unfolds Denon's colourful, extraordinary and contradictory character. While Denon was the first to present to Europe a true and honest image of ancient Egypt and the first European traveller to spend months exploring the desert and recording the monuments he found there, he was also a hard-headed collector. Throughout his travels he made plans for the wonders of Egypt to be crated up and shipped back to Paris. The Discovery of Egypt is a story of heroic endurance and accomplishment set against a bloody military campaign. Illustrated with Vivant Denon's incomparable drawings and the works of others who accompanied Napoleon to the deserts of Egypt, it gives an insight into the mind of one of the first Egyptologists: an adventurer, an artist of consummate ability and a compulsive collector.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0750941456/?tag=2022091-20
(Napoleon's military expedition to Egypt in 1798 famously ...)
Napoleon's military expedition to Egypt in 1798 famously included various scientists and savants, among whom was the author of this three-volume work, published in French in 1802 and in English in 1803. Vivant Denon (1747-1825) was a diplomat under the Ancien Régime, but survived the Revolution thanks to the patronage of the painter David, and met Napoleon through the salon of Josephine de Beauharnais. He accompanied the army, excavating and sketching, sometimes even during battles. The publication of this lively, illustrated account is regarded as the chief stimulus for the so-called 'Egyptian Revival' style of architecture, interior design and even costume. Volume 2 finds Denon travelling down the Nile into Upper Egypt, and fretting because General Desaix, his mind focused on an approaching battle, would not give him an escort to visit Abydos. This disappointment was compensated for when the army arrived at the marvellous ruins of Thebes.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1108080219/?tag=2022091-20
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1166176460/?tag=2022091-20
Dominique Vivant Denon was born on January 1, 1747 in Chalon-sur-Saône.
He was sent to Paris to study law, but he showed a decided preference for art and literature, and soon gave up his profession.
He became a favourite of Louis XV, who entrusted him with the collection and arrangement of a cabinet of medals and antique gems for Madame de Pompadour, and subsequently appointed him attache to the French embassy at St Petersburg.
On the accession of Louis XVI.
He devoted this period to a careful study of the monuments of ancient art, collecting many specimens and making drawings of others.
After a brief interval he returned to Italy, living chiefly at Venice.
He travelled to Florence and Bologna, and afterwards went to Switzerland.
While there he heard that his property had been confiscated, and his name placed on the list of the proscribed, and with characteristic courage he resolved at once to return to Paris.
When the Revolution was over, Denon was one of the band of eminent men who frequented the house of Madame de Beauharnais.
Here he met Bonaparte, to whose fortunes he wisely attached himself.
At Bonaparte's invitation he joined the expedition to Egypt, and thus found the opportunity of gathering the materials for his most important literary and artistic work.
The results were published in his Voyage dans la basse et la haute Egypte, a work which crowned his reputation both as an archaeologist and as an artist.
He was a devoted friend of Napoleon, whom he accompanied in his expeditions to Austria, Spain and Poland, taking sketches with his wonted fearlessness on the various battlefields, and advising the conqueror in his choice of spoils of art from the various cities pillaged.
In 1802 he published his Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte pendant les campagnes du général Bonaparte (Journey in Lower and Upper Egypt during the campaigns of General Bonaparte).
Denon was Director-General of Museums, and was in charge of the Musée Napoléon (now the Louvre).
(Napoleon's military expedition to Egypt in 1798 famously ...)
(Dominique-Vivant Denon was a lover of the Empress Josephi...)
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)