Bernardino Drovetti
Bernardino Michele Maria Drovetti (born January 4, 1776 in Barbania , Italy , † March 5, 1852 in Turin ) was a diplomat and lawyer and known as the French consul and collector of Egyptian art treasures.
Family and education
His parents were Giorgio Francesco Drovetti and Anna Vittoria Vacca. Bernardino's older brother Giuseppe became a lawyer, his younger brother Luigi a priest. He also had a sister, but nothing is known about her. Drovetti attended the Collegio delle Provincie in Turin and studied law at the local university . When he was born, Drovetti's homeland belonged to the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont , which was conquered by Napoleon in 1796 . Drovetti, like his entire family, became a French citizen.
After completing his studies in Turin, he joined the army. Before the annexation of Piedmont by France, Drovetti was involved in the formation of a provisional government. So it happened that he was first an officer in the War Ministry of Piedmont, and later became 1st officer of the Piedmont Hussars, which were then incorporated into the French army. In the spring of 1801 the young Drovetti became minister of war in Piedmont and chief of staff of the Piedmontese division in the French army. Later that year he was appointed to Turin as a judge, where he remained in office until 1803 . He left Turin when Napoleon sent him to Egypt in 1803 as commissioner for foreign relations.
In Egypt
In the spring of 1803 Napoléon appointed Matthieu de Lesseps (1771–1832) to Drovetti's superior in Egypt. Lesseps and Drovetti were sent to Egypt as diplomats to observe the situation there for France. The Mamelukes were originally Turkish slaves who had been converted to Islam and who came to power in Egypt with the establishment of the Bahri dynasty in 1250 . Despite the defeat by the Ottoman Empire in 1517 , the Mamelukes remained governors until the French troops conquered Egypt on the Egyptian expedition at the Battle of the Pyramids of Giza in 1798. After Napoleon left Egypt again in 1799 and did not send diplomats to Egypt again until 1803, the Ottoman Empire gained influence and fought for supremacy with the Mamelukes, who had befriended Great Britain. But the British army had meanwhile also withdrawn from Egypt.
The Turks installed Ali Pasha as viceroy . Drovetti occupied himself with him only insofar as French interests were to be ensured. In 1815 Drovetti handed over the post to his successor, but stayed in Egypt, traveled and remained politically active. In 1829 Drovetti was reinstated as Consul General for France in Egypt, but his interest in antiques and excavations remained. Various agents searched on his behalf and made excavations.
During his time in Egypt, Drovetti built up his own collection. As a traveler and collector, the famous Giovanni Battista Belzoni was his greatest rival, as was Henry Salt . Salt and Drovetti had a kind of respectful relationship, but still Salt didn't trust Drovetti. The reason for the fight between Drovetti and Belzoni was certainly due to the fact that there was a rivalry between the British and French agents over the purchase of antiques for the respective country. Drovetti was the agent for France and Salt was the agent for Great Britain, and Belzoni had hired him. There were some disputes, such as the obelisk that had been found in Philae or the opening and exploration of the temple at Abu Simbel .
During his travels Drovetti came into contact with other “travelers”, including Jean Jacques Rifaud , Frédéric Cailliaud , Robert Richardson , Baron v. Sack , Alessandro Ricci , Enegildo Frediani , Carlo Vidua , Edouard Montule , Franz Christian Gau and Linant de Bellefonds ; also with Edme Jomard and Jean Dubois Ayme .
Rifaud and Cailliaud were his travel companions, especially in the early days in Egypt. Little is known about Rifaud, but Cailliaud was a French mineralogist, geologist, and stone collector. As a result of his collaboration with Drovetti, he met the Egyptian viceroy Ali Pasha, who hired him as a mineralogist for the government with the task of finding the emerald mines of the Ptolemies . Salt and Drovetti went on some expeditions together, Edme Jomard was a participant in the expedition that found the Rosetta Stone , which was used to decipher the hieroglyphs .
Drovetti toured northern Nubia with Caillaud and Rifaud, exploring the 2nd cataract of the Nile and the temple of Abu Simbel. Drovetti's collection was enormous, although he had not found everything himself, but had bought many pieces from other excavators and local Arabs , which later went to various museums. Although he did most of the excavations in Thebes , which was shared between himself and Henry Salt, his expeditions also took him to Fayum , Tanis and Abydos .
The legacy
Drovetti was born an Italian, but his service was always fully committed to France. However, he always sold his antiques to the highest bidder. His demands for his Egyptological collection were exorbitant. He offered them to France and the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont. Carlo Vidua, who negotiated for Piedmont, ultimately won the bid. The collection went to the University of Turin and formed the cornerstone for the museum in Turin .
In the Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich there are also objects that Drovetti's agency had bought for the Bavarian King Ludwig I before 1830 .
Fonts
- Lettres de Bernardino Drovetti, consul de France à Alexandrie: (1803-1830) . Ed. U. come over. by Sylvie Guichard. Maisonneuve & Larose, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-7068-1743-7 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Francesco Ercole: Gli Uomo politici. Enciclopedia bio-bibliografica italiana, Vol. 1, 1941 (via WBI)
- ↑ Ludwig Schorn: Description of the Glyptothek of His Majesty the King Ludwig I of Bavaria . Cotta, Munich 1830, pp. 4, 6, 13. (digitized version)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Drovetti, Bernardino |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Drovetti, Bernardino Michele Maria (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Proconsul of Napoléon Bonaparte |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 4, 1776 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Barbania , Italy |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 5, 1852 |
| Place of death | Turin |