Vases en voyage de la grèce à l'étrurie

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• Langue: Français

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Vases en voYage: De la Grèce à l’Étrurie

by Musée DObRée. PP. 224, cOlOR figs. 291, MaPs 3. éDitiOns sOMOgy D’aRt, PaRis, anD cOnseil geneRal De lOiRe-atlantique, nantes 2004.)25. isbn 2-85056-715-9 (PaPeR).

This richlY illustrated and informative catalogue accompanies an eXhibition of an- cient Greek and Etruscan art organized bY the Musée Dobrée, Nantes, draWn from French regional museums in BrittanY and the Loire and shoWn at nine venues in France from Janu- arY 2004 to April 2007. Although it focuses on vases from Athens, mainland Greece, and ItalY, the catalogue also includes terracottas, bronze vessels, utensils, fibulae, and coins. TheVoyage is manifold: from Greece, Etruria, and southern ItalY to 19th-centurY French collections, to the museums Where theY noW reside, and to the nine venues of the eXhibition. Jean-René Jannot revieWs the historY of French collections of Greek vases. The his- torY of collecting is a burgeoning field (see Vinnie Nørskov,Greek Vases in New Contexts [Aarhus 2002]), and it is critical that museum publications include this information. Greek vases—called “Etruscan” at first—Were ac- quired in the 19th centurY bY French travelers on the Grand Tour. Stendhal bought them as gifts for friends. French dealers sold antiquities acquired from “eXcavations” in ItalY; one such gallerY eXisted in the Place de la Madeleine in Paris. Most French museum collections Were formed from such finds, making it difficult to reconstruct an archaeological provenance for these objects. Concise histories of five of the lending museums’ collections folloW. Sources include gifts and bequests from private collectors, purchases, and transfers from other museums. Of mYsterious origin is a red-figure kYliX bY 2 Epiktetos (ARV,76, no. 83) in the Musée ven- déen de FontenaY-le-Comte. The vase, Which Was knoWn to BeazleY onlY through a draWing, Was found at Vulci in 1829, belonged to Lucien Bonaparte, passed through sales in London (1838) and Paris (1843), and then disappeared. OnlY after the publication of the draWing in

1998 Was the identification made; hoW the vase reached the museum is unknoWn. An outstanding collection is that of Lancelot Théodore Turpin de Crissé (1781–1859) be- queathed to the Musée Pincé d’Angers. Turpin de Crissé acquired his love for antiquities as a Young man on his first trip to ItalY in 1807 and developed it While resident at Malmaison, Where he served aschambellanto the empress Josephine from 1809 to 1814. He bought the best Campanian and Greek vases he could find on subsequent trips to Naples and Venice and purchased others from major antiquities col- lections. He also kept meticulous inventories, dreW the vases himself, and even designed eXhibition cases for them; all this information came to the museum as part of the bequest. Dominique Briquel relates hoW manY of the objects in the eXhibition came originallY from a collection formed bY the Marquis Gi- ampietro Campana betWeen 1830 and 1850 With funds embezzled from the Papal State at Rome. He eXhibited it in his villa/museum near Saint John Lateran in 1846. In 1857, the embezzlement Was discovered and Campana Was arrested. The Vatican seized the collection, and in 1861 sold part of it to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the remainder (610 crates containing 11,835 objects) to the French govern- ment. The Frenchportion Was eXhibited brieflY in the neW Musée de Napoléon III, but after the museum Was closed in 1862, a committee Was formed to disperse the collection to the Musée du Louvre and 49 provincial French museums. The Louvre kept the jeWelrY, bronzes, and glass, and anYthing With an inscription (some inscribed vases, hoWever, Went to provincial museums). UnfortunatelY, the dispersal of the Campana collection resulted in the scattering of tomb groups, thus destroYing What little ar- chaeological association had survived. In most instances, hoWever, the Campana contribu-