From this early period we enter that of the art sales, which, as we have already said, seem characteristic of the eighteenth century. Financial disasters and speculations6 disperse7 more than one fortune and usher8 new-comers into the world of finance. This is the time when masterpieces begin to change hands so rapidly. The spirit of collecting is superceded by that of commerce, and faking appears under new forms, those with no other trickery beyond what commerce with its intrigue9 and deceit can supply.
“All amateurs,” writes a contemporary in the Chronique Scandaleuse, “are now mixed up with brocantage (bric-à-brac). There is not a collector who does not sell or exchange (troque), either on account of unstable10 taste, or for the sake of gain, or to retaliate11 his own bad bargain upon some one greener than himself.”
Even Voltaire, between an epigram and a satire12, found himself implicated13 in brocantage, only, more shrewd than Cicero, he saved appearances by an associate, the Abbé Moussinot, he remaining the sleeping partner.
Voltaire’s name and his banter14 over natural history and explanations of geological phenomena—Buffon, the author of131 a Natural History that Voltaire called “not at all natural,” was one of his victims, he having replied to Buffon’s learned hypothesis with regard to some sea-shells found on the summit of the Alps that the shells might have been lost by pilgrims on their way to Rome—recalls to our mind an eighteenth-century successful piece of faking and practical joke played on an erudite collector, Dr. Louis Huber of Würtzburg. In the year 1727 two doctors of the town prepared a surprise for Huber, a surprise by which his collection of fossils was to be enriched by some extraordinary specimens15. Speculating on the enthusiasm and good faith of the learned doctor and impassioned collector, the two accomplices16 fabricated fossils of fantastic animals and the most impossible shells. The imitations were generally modelled in clay with the addition of a hardening substance. Incredible as it may sound, some of them represented ants and bees of the most heroic proportions, crabs17 of new line and shape, etc. These were carefully buried in ground of suitable character where Prof. Huber had been seen to excavate18.
The rest is easily divined. What is not easy to understand, however, is the fact that after having made several of these most incredible discoveries Dr. Huber thought fit to publish a work, consisting of a hundred folios, written in Latin and issued under the auspices19 of Professor Béranger. The book, which was dedicated20 to the Bishop21 of Franconia, had twenty-two illustrations reproducing with extreme exactitude Dr. Louis Huber’s fantastic antediluvian22 find.
But this is not all. The learned Faculty23 of Science of Würtzburg assembled to honour Dr. Huber and the doyen of the Faculty pronounced a speech in praise of his discovery.
What followed can be easily deduced. Only his good faith saved the deceived collector from the sore experiences of a modern sham25 discoverer of the North Pole.
The curio world, however, still counts some good art lovers and serious collectors, such as Gersaint, Basant, whom the Duc de Choiseul used to call le marechal de Saxe de la curiosité on account of his daring and successful inroads on the art132 market, where, by the way, though no blood is shed no less strategy is needed than on the battlefield. There are other names worth quoting in this century of decadence26, Gloomy and his friend Remy, painter and dealer2 in pictures and other curios, Julliot, Langlier, Paillet, Regnault-Delalande, Pierre Lebrun and his son, J. B. Lebrun, who married the famous artist Mlle. Vigëe, and owned the well-known Salle Lebrun, often used for celebrated27 sales.
Other names might be quoted, La Marquise de Pompadour, Cardinal Soubise, Girardot de Prefond, Fontette, Malesherbes, Marquis de Paulmy, etc.—then, the Revolution comes, the ancien régime disappears and with it the dainty furniture, foppish28 dress, and the supremacy29 of an art market which with all its oddities were such perhaps as had never been seen since the time of the orgy of curio-hunting of Ancient Rome. This supremacy, deprived of many of its idiosyncrasies, temporarily crossed the Channel and went to England accompanied by many of the treasures that dealers and refugees managed to save from the cataclysm30 of 1779.
Napoleon may be quoted as an exceptional art collector—if ever such a name can belong to a man utterly31 deprived of a sense of art but shrewd enough to understand the mighty32 support given to sovereigns by art—for in the process of time the man formed more than one art collection by methods that in their drastic character greatly resembled those adopted by Roman generals and proconsuls.
This statement is eloquently33 supported by facts and numbers. Here is a laconic34 writing of Napoleon in which he informs the Directory of his first artistic35 “finds” in Italy. Speaking of his agents, he states:
“They have already seized: fifteen paintings from Parma, twenty from Modena, twenty-five from Milan, forty from Bologna, ten from Ferrara.”
This is, of course, his first experiment as a novice36 collector. Other things were to follow, the Medici Venus from Florence, the Roman Horses from Venice, and all the best works of art from the Italian museums, and these but foster more133 eclectic desires in this strange art lover, who while preoccupied37 with the problem of transporting heavy statues from Rome and harvesting antiques and Renaissance38 work, indiscriminately orders to be taken to France with the artistic booty the votive pen that Justus Lipsius left to the sanctuary39 of Loretto and the votive image left by Montaigne to the same sanctuary. The anecdote40 of Lucius Mummius of ignorant memory is here repeated in a way, for the officials acting41 under Napoleon’s orders have nothing to say about Montaigne’s ex-voto, but when it comes to the pen of Lipsius these worthies42 gleefully remark: “La plume43 de Juste Lipse qui avoit été estimée cinq huitièmes, c’est trouvée peser six huitièmes” (the pen of Juste Lipse which was supposed to weigh five-eighths, has been found to weigh six-eighths).
From the Revolution to the time of Napoleon’s dominion44 is the period in which the passion for art collecting is least felt. Faking, of course, is an art that does not pay and thus has no raison d’être. Yet faking passes from the field of art to that of real life, the new Republic apes Roman customs. David the artist is faked into a Tribune while busy painting Romans that seem to have been brought out of a hot-house and he sketches45 semi-Roman costumes for the new officials of the Republic, garments that with all the foppishness of the “old regime” had Roman Consular46 swords, Imperial chlamys (mantle), faked buskins or ornamented47 cothurnus (boots worn by tragedians). It is this faking of life that feels the need even to alter the calendar, changing the Roman etymology48 of the names of the months into more resounding49 Latinesque appellations50. At home in this staged drama of life, Napoleon, the friend of Talma and David, continues the grandiose51 faking with a sort of complex etiquette52 and a veneer53 of aristocracy, which makes one sadly think of the truth of the words pronounced by Courier on General Bonaparte’s elevation54 to the throne: He aspires55 to descend56.
Yet even in this peculiar57 and rather negative world the chronicle of the curieux may contain some glorious names, and these no doubt prepared at the beginning of the nineteenth134 century the return of the cult24 of art in France, the reappearance of devoted58 collectors and enlightened amateurs. We may then name successively art lovers and intelligent collectors such as Lenoir, Du Sommerville and Sauvageot, Revoil Willemin. And after them artists, collectors and dealers of the calibre of Mlle. Delaunay, Escudier, Montfort, Roussel, Beurdeley, Henry Grandjean, Mannheim, the first of a dynasty of honest and intelligent dealers; then almost in our own times Baron59 Davilliers, Bonnaffé, Emile Peyre and others. But art collecting is now no longer an accentuated60 characteristic of France nor of England, Germany and other European countries which have a tradition and have come to the fore61, but other new and powerful States have joined the contest, cast new types of collectors and created a new psychology62 in the art world which will form the second part of this book.
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1 speculation | |
n.思索,沉思;猜测;投机 | |
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2 dealer | |
n.商人,贩子 | |
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3 dealers | |
n.商人( dealer的名词复数 );贩毒者;毒品贩子;发牌者 | |
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4 cardinal | |
n.(天主教的)红衣主教;adj.首要的,基本的 | |
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5 plundered | |
掠夺,抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6 speculations | |
n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 );思考;投机活动;推断 | |
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7 disperse | |
vi.使分散;使消失;vt.分散;驱散 | |
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8 usher | |
n.带位员,招待员;vt.引导,护送;vi.做招待,担任引座员 | |
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9 intrigue | |
vt.激起兴趣,迷住;vi.耍阴谋;n.阴谋,密谋 | |
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10 unstable | |
adj.不稳定的,易变的 | |
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11 retaliate | |
v.报复,反击 | |
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12 satire | |
n.讽刺,讽刺文学,讽刺作品 | |
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13 implicated | |
adj.密切关联的;牵涉其中的 | |
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14 banter | |
n.嘲弄,戏谑;v.取笑,逗弄,开玩笑 | |
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15 specimens | |
n.样品( specimen的名词复数 );范例;(化验的)抽样;某种类型的人 | |
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16 accomplices | |
从犯,帮凶,同谋( accomplice的名词复数 ) | |
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17 crabs | |
n.蟹( crab的名词复数 );阴虱寄生病;蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 ) | |
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18 excavate | |
vt.挖掘,挖出 | |
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19 auspices | |
n.资助,赞助 | |
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20 dedicated | |
adj.一心一意的;献身的;热诚的 | |
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21 bishop | |
n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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22 antediluvian | |
adj.史前的,陈旧的 | |
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23 faculty | |
n.才能;学院,系;(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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24 cult | |
n.异教,邪教;时尚,狂热的崇拜 | |
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25 sham | |
n./adj.假冒(的),虚伪(的) | |
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26 decadence | |
n.衰落,颓废 | |
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27 celebrated | |
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的 | |
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28 foppish | |
adj.矫饰的,浮华的 | |
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29 supremacy | |
n.至上;至高权力 | |
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30 cataclysm | |
n.洪水,剧变,大灾难 | |
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31 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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32 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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33 eloquently | |
adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
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34 laconic | |
adj.简洁的;精练的 | |
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35 artistic | |
adj.艺术(家)的,美术(家)的;善于艺术创作的 | |
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36 novice | |
adj.新手的,生手的 | |
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37 preoccupied | |
adj.全神贯注的,入神的;被抢先占有的;心事重重的v.占据(某人)思想,使对…全神贯注,使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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38 renaissance | |
n.复活,复兴,文艺复兴 | |
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39 sanctuary | |
n.圣所,圣堂,寺庙;禁猎区,保护区 | |
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40 anecdote | |
n.轶事,趣闻,短故事 | |
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41 acting | |
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的 | |
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42 worthies | |
应得某事物( worthy的名词复数 ); 值得做某事; 可尊敬的; 有(某人或事物)的典型特征 | |
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43 plume | |
n.羽毛;v.整理羽毛,骚首弄姿,用羽毛装饰 | |
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44 dominion | |
n.统治,管辖,支配权;领土,版图 | |
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45 sketches | |
n.草图( sketch的名词复数 );素描;速写;梗概 | |
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46 consular | |
a.领事的 | |
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47 ornamented | |
adj.花式字体的v.装饰,点缀,美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48 etymology | |
n.语源;字源学 | |
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49 resounding | |
adj. 响亮的 | |
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50 appellations | |
n.名称,称号( appellation的名词复数 ) | |
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51 grandiose | |
adj.宏伟的,宏大的,堂皇的,铺张的 | |
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52 etiquette | |
n.礼仪,礼节;规矩 | |
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53 veneer | |
n.(墙上的)饰面,虚饰 | |
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54 elevation | |
n.高度;海拔;高地;上升;提高 | |
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55 aspires | |
v.渴望,追求( aspire的第三人称单数 ) | |
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56 descend | |
vt./vi.传下来,下来,下降 | |
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57 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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58 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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59 baron | |
n.男爵;(商业界等)巨头,大王 | |
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60 accentuated | |
v.重读( accentuate的过去式和过去分词 );使突出;使恶化;加重音符号于 | |
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61 fore | |
adv.在前面;adj.先前的;在前部的;n.前部 | |
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62 psychology | |
n.心理,心理学,心理状态 | |
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