Lorenzo Bartolini Vernio, 1777 - Florence, 1850
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Lorenzo Bartolini Vernio, 1777 - Florence, 1850 Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi Levoy, Princesse Française, Princess of Piombino and Lucca, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Countess of Compignano, Sister of Napoleon (1777 –1820) and Felix Pasquale Baciocchi Levoy, Prince of Piombino and Lucca (1762 –1841) Circa 1809 White marble, Elisa presented on a later turned marble socle; Felix inscribed along the chest ‘FELIX’, an old repair to the tip of Felix’s nose Elisa: 57 cm. high, 75 cm. high, overall Felix: 51.5 cm. high Provenance: By family tradition, Elisa Bonaparte, at her country house, the Villa Ciardi a Villa Vicentina, where also photographed between 1913 and 1919.1 On her death, Joseph Bonaparte (1768–1844), brother of Elisa, who, as the first-born son of their parents, had inherited much of the personal property in Villa Ciardi belonging to his sister Elisa, the fifth- born child, when she died in 1820. On his death, his daughter Zenaide Letizia Bonaparte (1801–54), who married her cousin Charles Lucien Bonaparte (1803–57), the son of Lucien Bonaparte (1775–1840), Napoleon's third-born brother. On her death, Julia Charlotte Bonaparte (1830–1900), daughter of Charles Lucien Bonaparte and Zenaide Letizia Bonaparte, who married Alessandro del Gallo, Marchese di Roccagiovine, Cantalupo e Bardella (1826–92) in 1847. On her death Marchese Alberto del Gallo di Roccagiovine (1854–1947) where documented in the State Archives as being in Villa Ciardi in 1913-1919 and erroneously attributed to Antonio Canova. On his death Marchesa Matilde del Gallo di Roccagiovine (1888-1977), who married Francesco Bucci Casari, Conte degli Atti di Sassoferrato. On her death, her son Oliviero Bucci Casari, Conte degli Atti di Sassoferrato. On his death, his daughter, Nobildonna Lorenza Bucci Casari, Contessa degli Atti di Sassoferrat; from whom acquired in 2017. Exhibited: Possibly two of the busts exhibited by Bartolini at the Esposizione di Belle Arti, Lucca, on 15 August 1809, for which Bartolini won Silver medals. Comparative literature: J. Kennedy, Description of the Antiquities and Curiosities in Wilton House, Salisbury, 1769. G. Campori, Memorie biografiche degli scultori…. Native di Carrara…., Modena, 1873, p. 281-282. C. T. Montholon, History of the Captivity of Napoleon at St. Helena, Vol. 3, London, 1847. F. B. Goodrich, The Court of Napoleon Philadelphia, 1875. R. Metternich, ed., Memoirs of Prince Metternich, 1773-1815, Vol. 1, New York, 1881. Lady M. Lloyd, New Letters of Napoleon I, edited by Léon Lecestre, New York, 1898. P. Marmatton, Les arts en Toscane sous Napoléon: la princesse Élisa, Paris, 1901. 1 Instituto Centrale per il Catalogo e il Documentazione, Rome, inv. E005269. F. Masson, Napoléon et Sa Famille, Vol. 9, Paris, 1907. T. Matthews, The biography of John Gibson, R.A., sculptor, Rome, London 1911. Louis Étienne Saint-Denis, Napoleon from the Tuileries to St. Helena, translated by Frank Hunter Potter, New York and London, 1922. L. A. Marchand, ed., Byron’s Letters and Journals, London, 1973-94, Vol 9, 213. J. Kenworthy-Browne, ‘Sculptor and Revolutionary; British Portraits by Bartolini’, Country Life, vol. 163, 1978. M. Pointon, Hanging the Head, New Haven and London, 1993. J. Gage, ‘Busts and Identity’, in P. Curtis et al., Return to Life: A New Look at the Portrait Bust, London, 2000. D. Wilson, ‘Nollekens and Fox in the Temple: The ‘Armitstead’ bust’, The British Art Journal, Vol. IV, No.3, Autumn 2003. P. Malgouyres, L’a princesse et le sculpteur: Elisa Bonaparte et Lorenzo Bartolini’, in Cahiers du Chateau et des Musées de Blois, no. 35, 2004. Robert Rosenblum and others, Citizens and Kings: Portraits in The Age of Revolution, Paris and London, 2006- 2007. Ingrid Roscoe, Emma Hardy and M. G. Sullivan (eds.), A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660- 1851, New Haven and London, 2009. D. Wilson, Hiram Powers’ ‘Demidoff’ Fisher Boy, London, 2013. D. Wilson, ‘Joseph Gott’s blemished portrait bust of Benjamin Gott: reinterpretation of the archive’, Sculpture Journal, Vol. 25.1, 2016. The magnificent bust of Elisa Bonaparte owes its origins to the particular relationship that its sculptor, Lorenzo Bartolini, enjoyed with the Napoleonic regime which governed France and its numerous conquered or annexed territories during the first and second decades of the nineteenth century. It constitutes an important historical record of both that relationship itself and of two impressive figures of that era, one political (Elisa) and one artistic (Bartolini). Maria Anna (Elisa) Bonaparte Baciocchi Levoy, Princesse Française, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Countess of Compignano (1777 –1820; Fig. 1), was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, the fourth surviving child and eldest surviving daughter of Carlo Bonaparte and Letizia Ramolino, their eldest daughter and younger sister of Napoleon Bonaparte. She did not adopt the name ‘Elisa’ until she was aged about 18. As Princess of Lucca and Piombino, then Grand Duchess of Tuscany, she was the only sister of Napoleon to possess political power, although relations between them were not always cordial. Around 1795, the Bonaparte family relocated from its home in Corsica to Marseille in France. While there, Elisa became acquainted with Felix Pasquale Baciocchi (Fig. 2), who later adopted the surname Levoy. A Corsican nobleman and formerly an army captain, he had been dismissed from his rank on the outbreak of the French Revolution. Elisa married Felix in a civil ceremony in Marseille in August 1797, followed by a religious ceremony in Mombello, where Napoleon had a villa, to which he had moved his family in June that year. Napoleon did not approve of the match, and Baciocchi, unlike his new wife, was not clever. Austrian Foreign Minister Clemens von Metternich, described Baciocchi as having an ‘entire want of intellectual faculties.’2 In 1799, the extended Bonaparte family moved to Paris, where Elisa set up home at 125 rue de Miromesnil, in the Quartier du Roule, with her husband and her favourite brother, Lucien, who shared her taste for literature and the arts, and where they put on plays and hosted 2 R. Metternich, ed., Memoirs of Prince Metternich, 1773-1815, Vol. 1 (New York, 1881), p. 309. receptions frequented by (amongst others) the painters Jacques-Louis David and Antoine-Jean Gros, and the poet Louis de Fontanes. Despite her obvious intelligence, Elisa gained a reputation of being unattractive, arrogant and somewhat harsh in her manner of speaking. ‘A harsh and domineering expression injured the effect of features which might otherwise have been pleasing, and her manner, which was abrupt and almost contemptuous toward inferiors, rendered her address distant and suspicious. Her bones were large and prominent, and her limbs ill-shaped: her gait was not graceful, and often subjected her to the playful mockeries of her sister Pauline.’ 3 At the start of November 1800, Lucien Bonaparte was despatched to Madrid as French ambassador to the court of the King of Spain. He took Elisa's husband, Felix Baciocchi, as his secretary. Elisa remained in Paris. On 18 May 1804, the French Senate voted in favour of setting up the First French Empire, with Napoleon at its head, and in 1805 Elisa and Napoleon's other sisters were established as members of the Imperial family, taking the style ‘Imperial Highness’ (‘Altesse impériale’). Felix was promoted to général de brigade, and later he was appointed a senator. On 19 March 1805, Napoleon awarded Elisa the Principality of Piombino, which had been French property for some years and, being on the west coast of Italy, was of major strategic interest to Napoleon due to its proximity to Elba and Corsica. Elisa and Felix (who now rejoined her after a short separation) took the titles Princess and Prince of Piombino. In June 1805, the oligarchic Republic of Lucca, north of Piombino, which had been occupied by France since late 1799, was made a Principality of France and added to Elisa and Felix’s domain. They set up a court with court etiquette inspired by that at the Tuileries. Most of the power over Lucca and Piombino was exercised by Elisa, who was very active in their administration. Felix took only a minor role, mainly contenting himself with making military decisions for their small army. The inhabitants of Lucca, under French occupation, begrudging the loss of their independence, had little time for Napoleon, Elisa, or their attempts to inculcate French culture and norms in the former republic. Elisa reformed the clergy at Lucca and Piombino, nationalising their goods and lands, and implemented legislative reform in Lucca, producing laws inspired by the Code Napoleon and producing a new penal code. She actively promoted public charity, built a new hospital in Piombino and instituted other significant public health initiatives and education reforms. In an attempt to aggrandise her status, she ordered the enlargement of several palaces, but in the process engendered hostility and scorn from the populace, especially when these projects led to the razing of significant parts of the built heritage, including venerated major ecclesiastical buildings. A longstanding devotee of the arts, with a keen interest in economic progress, in May 1807, Elisa established the Committee for the Encouragement of Agriculture, Arts and Commerce to promote and finance the invention of new machines and new techniques to increase the territories' agricultural production and experimental plantations such as those of mulberries at Massa (which had been added to her possessions by Napoleon in 1806), where a Silk School was established in August 1808. 3 Frank B. Goodrich, The Court of Napoleon (Philadephia, 1875), p. 260. On 29 October 1807, Napoleon signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau with the Spanish court, which transferred Tuscany to France, and, in March 1809 a decree established the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, made Florence its capital and Elisa its grand duchess.