Roman Republicans, fasces and festivals: the French occupation of Rome, 1798-99, from the archives of the Museo Napoleonico

Apollo, Jan, 2004 by Eleanor Tollfree

[FIGURES 13-17 OMITTED]

A pair of illustrations, one a sepia original by Humbert (Fig. 18), the other, an engraved version of the same (Fig. 19), depict the second monument erected in the Forum for the Festival of the Perpetuity of the Republic. (62) Here, an altar resembling the altars of the Fatherland constructed at many of the festivals held in France, (63) has become the focal point for commemoration of individuals who have died in the Republican cause. An altar surmounted by an urn stands on a high podium in front of the ruins of the Basilica of Maxentius. Flaming altars smoke on each corner of the podium, and youths reach up to place wreaths on the podium. The classical dress of the girls, dancing with their wreaths beneath the podium, and the Roman togas and soldier's uniform worn by the men standing by the altar, strongly contrast with the contemporary uniforms of the soldiers positioned round the monument, and the clothes of the bystanders watching from the foreground. The altar is framed by the four Trees of Liberty planted at each corner of the monument, and the whole scene is dominated by the magnificent ruins of the Basilica of Maxentius behind. Two of the three great vaults of the Basilica, on which a few groups of people stand in order to view the festival ceremonies, act as a dramatic backdrop to the scene. The very fabric of the Roman building has become integral to the event. The space and dimensions of the building, and its location in the original Forum Romanum play a key role in establishing the spatial structuring of the scene and in bringing to life the elements of ancient Roman ideology which were crucial to the new regime.

[FIGURES 18&19 OMITTED]

The appropriation by the French of important ancient sites in the city, which, as we have seen, took place on the occasion of the festivals held to commemorate the Roman Republic, is also suggested by two unsigned drawings from a group of designs for letter headings in the Museo Napoleonico. Both depict Liberty figures standing with their fasces and bonnets supported on staffs before key locations in Rome, as if claiming them as their own. One (Fig. 20) (64) shows Liberty gazing at a figure of the Tiber in the foreground, with the steps leading up to the buildings on the Capitoline behind. The engagement between the two figures is suggestive of the cultural and political dialogue which the French aimed to establish under the Roman Republic. The other (Fig. 21) (65) shows Liberty leaning on a pile of ruined masonry with the city of Rome, indicated by Castel S Angelo and St Peter's, in the background. (66) Here, as in some of the other letter headings, (67) she wears a military helmet rather than a Liberty bonnet, indicating that she also represents Minerva, protector of the French, and of the military prowess of the French in their seizure of Rome. Clearly, during the period of the Roman Republic, the French attempted to assert their power over the city of Rome just as much as they tried to transform their capital through festivals into the 'new Rome'. However, it was only in the context of imperial Paris, in the wake of Napoleon's coronation in 1804 and his successful military campaigns, that the French were able to recreate ancient Rome in material form on their own soil.