Pauline Bonaparte
Pauline Borghese (Italian: Paolina Borghese ; born October 20, 1780 in Ajaccio , † June 9, 1825 in Florence ), originally called Paoletta Buonaparte , Duchess of Guastalla, was Napoleon Bonaparte's favorite sister .
Life
Growing up in Ajaccio on Corsica , Pauline fled to France with her mother and siblings at the age of 13 . In Paris , her brother married her to General Charles Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc and sent the couple to San Domingo , in what is now Haiti , to put down a slave revolt. Notwithstanding her infidelity, she cared for her husband when he fell fatally with yellow fever in 1801. From this marriage came the son Dermide Leclerc (1798-1806).
In 1803, at the instigation of her brother, Pauline married the French officer Camillo Borghese , later Duke of Guastalla and Governor General of Piedmont . Above all, she followed her brother's wish to outdo her sister-in-law Joséphine de Beauharnais with the title of an older noble family, the Roman princes Borghese . This competition also made Pauline very wasteful with the money that Napoleon had made available to her. Pauline Borghese caused a scandal when she sat model for the famous sculptor Canova for his marble sculpture of " Venus Victrix " ("Venus as Victor"; also called "Resting Venus"). However, the work of art aroused widespread admiration; it is still in the Museum of the Villa Borghese (Rome) .
She accompanied her brother Napoleon - as the only one of his sisters - into exile in Elba . After the reign of the 100 days , she lived in Rome and Florence , separated from her husband . In the early 1820s she had a scandalous affair with the opera composer Giovanni Pacini .
As she was getting on in years, Pauline suffered from several illnesses and was unable to visit her brother on St. Helena . She died of cancer at the age of 44. She was buried in the Borghese crypt.
literature
- Pauline Bonaparte. Bust of Canova . In the Late San Donato Collection. an article from The Art Amateur , Volume 3. Published July 1, 1880
- H. Noel Williams: The women Bonaparte: the mother and three sisters of Napoleon I . Volume 1. Publisher: Charles Scribner's sons, New York Published 1909
- H. Noel Williams: T he women Bonaparte: the mother and three sisters of Napoleon I. Volume 2. Publisher: Charles Scribner's sons, New York Published in 1909
- Joseph, Turquan: The sisters of Napoleon, Elisa, Pauline, and Caroline Bonaparte. After the Testimony of their Contemporaries . Translated and edited by WRH Trowbridge. Publisher T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1908
- Hector Fleischmann: Pauline Bonaparte and her lovers . Authorized Translation. Publisher: John Lane Company; London and New York, 1914
Web links
swell
Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. 1000 biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 78.
Remarks
- ↑ Saverio Lamacchia: Giovanni Pacini, in: Dizionario biografico degli italiani , Vol. 80, 2014, online on Treccani (Italian; accessed August 12, 2019)
- ↑ Jeremy Commons: Giovanni Pacini and Maria regina d'Inghilterra , booklet text on the complete recording of Maria regina d'Inghilterra (with Nelly Miricioiu, Bruce Ford et al.), Opera Rara, 1998, pp. 11-88, here: p. 14
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Ferdinand |
Duchess of Parma 1806-1808 |
Jean-Jacques Régis de Cambacérès |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bonaparte, Pauline |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bounaparte, Pauline; Buonaparte, Paoletta |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Duchess of Parma |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 20, 1780 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ajaccio |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 9, 1825 |
| Place of death | Florence |