How many and what are the Italian paintings requisitioned by the French today exhibited in the Louvre?

How many and what are the Italian paintings that were looted by the French in Italy at the time of the Napoleonic plundering that are now on display in the Louvre? There are a total of about fifty canvases and panels by Italian artists requisitioned by the French that can currently be seen in the long Grande Galerie, the Louvre’s gallery reserved for Italian painting from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century. While these works represent only a minority fraction of the Italian painting on display at the Louvre (many Italian paintings in fact arrived at the Louvre through other routes: purchases, donations, and exchanges of works, while others were in the collections of French nobles and were requisitioned at the time of the French Revolution), they are also a tiny fraction of what the French took away from Italy between 1796, the year the Italian campaign began, and 1815. Many works were in fact returned after 1815, and still others are today scattered among various French museums, or even in institutional locations.

Napoleonic requisitions in Italy experienced two main waves: the first was in 1796-1797, the time of the Italian campaign, when mainly the Veneto region was looted. The second wave, from 1811-1812, was planned by Commissaire Dominique Vivant Denon, the first director of what was then known as the “Napoleonic museum” and today is nothing more than the Louvre, and focused mainly on central Italy. Indeed, when Napoleon began his military campaigns in Italy in 1796, the intent was not only political or territorial, but also cultural. The goal was to plunder Italian cities of their artistic treasures and transfer them to France, where they would help consolidate Paris as the new cultural center of Europe, shifting the focus of knowledge and art from Rome and Florence to the French capital. Napoleon’s armies regarded art as spoils of war, to be taken from enemies and displayed as a trophy.

Among the hardest hit Italian cities were Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan and Bologna, places that housed some of the greatest art collections of the time. Paintings by great masters of antiquity were torn from their original contexts and transported to Paris, where they were displayed to the French public as emblems of the greatness of the Republic and, later, the Empire. In some cases, some of the loot was returned after the fall of Napoleon and the Restoration. Indeed, the Congress of Vienna in 1815 stipulated that many requisitioned masterpieces should be returned to their rightful owners. Particularly valuable in this regard was the work of Antonio Canova , who, as commissioner of restitutions for the Papal States, managed to return to Rome almost all the works that had been taken to France. Not all other cities had the same good fortune, however, and today many Italian works are still in France.

The Napoleonic requisitions had profound consequences not only for Italy but for all of Europe. While the looting deprived Italian art centers of some of their most important works, it also helped to spread Italian art in an international context. However, this process brought with it an ethical and political debate that in part continues to this day. The Napoleonic despoliation of Italian works of art is a fundamental chapter in the history of the relationship between art and power. Today, visiting the halls of the Louvre, it is possible to admire many of these masterpieces, but with the knowledge that behind those works lies a history of conquest and subtraction, diplomacy and propaganda.

For the list we have compiled in this article, we have taken into account some basic criteria. Meanwhile, only paintings by Italian artists currently on display in the Louvre were selected. Thus, the list does not include antiquities, paintings by non-Italian artists that were nonetheless requisitioned in Italy (for example, Rogier van der Weyden’sAnnunciation , which was taken from the Galleria Sabauda in Turin in 1799), and requisitioned works by Italian artists that are currently in the Louvre’s storerooms, or in storage at other museums (for example, Giovanni Antonio Burrini’s Martyrdom of Saint Victoria , requisitioned from the ducal collections of Modena in 1796, and now owned of the Louvre but on deposit at the Château de Compiègne museum), or on deposit at institutional venues (e.g., theApparition of the Madonna and Child to Saint Francis by Giulio Campi, since 1960 deposited at the French embassy in Rome, and requisitioned from the church of San Domenico in Cremona in 1796). As for the captions, we have not reported the original provenance of the work, but its location at the time of its requisition (for example, for Giotto’s Stigmata di san Francesco , we have not indicated its original provenance from the church of San Francesco in Pisa, but its location in the deposits of the Camposanto in Pisa when the work was requisitioned by the French).

For those visiting the Louvre, the provenance of all works is always indicated in the captions. If you want to learn more about this topic, read Federico Giannini and Ilaria Baratta’s article on the legal and cultural reasons for Napoleon’s spoliations, or Federico Giannini’s review of the exhibition Il museo universale (Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale, 2017), which was also dedicated to this topic.

Italian paintings looted by the French at the time of Napoleonic requisitions and now on display at the Louvre, Paris

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.