{"product_id":"plunder-napoleons-theft-of-veroneses-feast-paperback","title":"Plunder: Napoleon's Theft of Veronese's Feast - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eCynthia Saltzman\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eThe Christian Science Monitor\u003c\/i\u003e's Ten Best Books of May\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A highly original work of history . . . [Saltzman] has written a distinctive study that transcends both art and history and forces us to explore the connections between the two.\"\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e--Roger Lowenstein, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA captivating study of Napoleon's plundering of Europe's art for the Louvre, told through the story of a Renaissance masterpiece seized from Venice\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCynthia Saltzman's \u003ci\u003ePlunder\u003c\/i\u003e recounts the fate of Veronese's \u003ci\u003eWedding Feast at Cana\u003c\/i\u003e, a vast, sublime canvas that the French, under the command of a young Napoleon Bonaparte, tore from a wall of the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, on an island in Venice, in 1797. Painted in 1563, the Renaissance picture had been immediately hailed as a masterpiece. Veronese had spread the scene across the end wall of the monastery's refectory and filled it with some 130 figures, lavishing color on the canvas to build the illusion that the biblical banquet was taking place on a terrace in sixteenth-century Venice. Once it was pulled from its frame, the canvas crossed the Mediterranean rolled on a cylinder, bound for Paris; soon after, artworks commandeered in Venice and Rome were triumphantly brought to the French capital. In 1801, the Veronese went on exhibition at the Louvre, the new public art museum founded during the Revolution, in the former palace of the French kings. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs Saltzman tells the larger story of Napoleon's looting of Italian art and its role in the creation of the Louvre, she reveals defining traits of his character: his desire for greatness and his ruthlessness in getting whatever he sought. After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815, the Duke of Wellington and the Allies forced the French to return many of the paintings and sculptures they had seized. Nevertheless, the French resisted sending \u003ci\u003eThe Wedding Feast at Cana\u003c\/i\u003e back to Venice, and the painting remains in Paris to this day, hanging directly opposite the \u003ci\u003eMona Lisa\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eExpertly researched and deftly told, \u003ci\u003ePlunder\u003c\/i\u003e chronicles one of the most spectacular art-appropriation campaigns in history, shedding light on a seminal historical figure and the complex origins of one of the world's great museums.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCynthia Saltzman\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of \u003ci\u003ePortrait of Dr. Gachet: The Story of a Van Gogh Masterpiece, Money, Politics, Collectors, Greed, and Loss\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eOld Masters, New World: America's Raid on Europe's Great Pictures\u003c\/i\u003e. A former reporter for \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, she is the recipient of a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation and has degrees in art history from Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 336\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.99 x 8.27 x 5.51 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e May 17, 2022\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51766264627488,"sku":"9781250861481","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/cbf47160f735c7efcb03c36440e8cd45.webp?v=1780288697","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/plunder-napoleons-theft-of-veroneses-feast-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}