The Russian contribution to the Edification of the Napoleon Tombstone in Paris

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu15.2016.306

Abstract

The crypt and sarcophagus of Napoleon in the Dôme des Invalids in Paris which were constructed by an Italian-born French architect and designer Louis Tullius Joachim Visconti evince an extraordinarily expressive and harmonic colour combination in French and Italian marbles with those of so called porphyries in Napoleon’s tombstone (they are really green andesite from France and purple quartzite from Russia). Works continued over a twenty year period (1840–1861) which saw in France three Kings, one Republic and one Emperor, and in Russia two emperors. Every political change in France exerted critical influence on the continuation of these works. The events surrounding the constructing the crypt and tombstone, applying steam machinery to cut and polish the sarcophagus, the budgets of the work is described from archival documents in detail. J.-F. Bujatti (an Italian from St Petersburg) played an important role in the quarrying of the Russian ornamental stone and in its transport to Paris.

Keywords:

Dôme des Invalids, tombstone of Napoleon, L. Visconti, J.-F. Bujatti, Schoksha quartzite

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Author Biographies

Andrey G. Bulakh, Saint Petersburg State University

professor

Jacques Leon Robert Touret, Université Pierre et Marie Curie

Professor Emeritus

 

References

References

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Published

2016-10-25

How to Cite

Bulakh, A. G. ., & Touret, J. L. R. (2016). The Russian contribution to the Edification of the Napoleon Tombstone in Paris. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Arts, 6(3), 70–83. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu15.2016.306

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 3 (2016)

Section

Cultural History

License

Articles of "Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Arts" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.