Hello everyone, I am learning from history.
We cannot mention Europe without mentioning France, and we cannot mention France without failing to mention Napoleon. This famous Corsican short man, who single-handedly established the First French Empire, became the Emperor of France, the King of Italy, the protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, the arbiter of the Swiss Confederation, the colonial lord of the French Empire... With the exception of Britain, almost all countries in Europe submitted to or allied themselves with Napoleon.
This is almost comparable to Qin Shi Huang's feat of unifying China, but it is a pity that Napoleon's dream of unifying Europe was lost by the mixing of Britain!
Although Napoleon led the French army to break the anti-French alliance of Britain, Prussia, Austria, Russia and other countries five times, and won more than fifty major battles, in the end Napoleon lost to the Sixth Anti-French Alliance at Waterloo, and after the defeat, he was exiled to St. Helena and ended his life there.
After Napoleon's death, Europe was once again torn apart according to Britain's wishes, and to this day, the European Union has not been able to accomplish Napoleon's feats.
But Napoleon's magnificent life is not just a European legend, it is a well-known figure all over the world. Chinese, when he was poor and weak, he once used the words that were said to be Napoleon's evaluation of China to cheer himself up. "China is a sleeping lion, and once it awakens, it will shock the world!"
Of all napoleon's stories, the most domineering one is that at the coronation ceremony of Napoleon's title, Napoleon not only did not kneel to accept the pope's coronation, but directly snatched the crown from the pope's hand and carried it on his head, without any regard for the pope's authority and face.
In the famous work of art, now treasured in the Louvre in Paris, "The Coronation of Emperor Napoleon I", the famous painter Jack Louis David painstakingly described the scene of Napoleon's coronation of his empress in order to maintain the face of both the Pope and the Emperor.
But in this famous work, there is actually a Napoleonic secret.
In the course of the French Revolution, the traditional coronation of the French kings had been destroyed, and another heavyweight Charlemagne coronation was in the hands of the Austrians, who refused to lend Napoleon the coronation.
So Napoleon simply made two crowns for the coronation ceremony, one of which is a replica of Charlemagne's coronation, theoretically Napoleon kneeling in front of the pope, and the pope solemnly put Charlemagne's coronation crown on Napoleon's head to complete the coronation ceremony.
But it is said that Napoleon did not have the slightest intention of kneeling, and even snatched Charlemagne's coronation directly from the Pope and put it on his head, but did not wear it. Why not bring it? In addition to the fact that this coronation crown is a replica, in fact, Napoleon already has another crown on his head, which is napoleon's special "laurel leaf gold crown" specially made for the coronation ceremony!
This "Golden Laurel Leaf Crown" was created by Napoleon following the example of his idol, Julius Caesar the Great, and specially ordered his royal goldsmith Toyonne to make it, and the full version of the Laurel Leaf Golden Crown consists of 50 large gold leaves, plus 12 leaflets and 42 seeds, each of which symbolizes Napoleon's victory. It is mounted on a round velvet belt and opened from the back with a buckle, which can be said to be ingenious.
But after the golden crown was made, Napoleon found a problem during the trial: the golden crown was too heavy! So the goldsmith Biane removed six of the gold leaves and left them as souvenirs to his six daughters.
On December 2, 1804, at the grand coronation of Emperor Napoleon I at Notre Dame Cathedral, this laurel leaf golden crown completely overshadowed another replica of Charlemagne's coronation crown, and this laurel crown is found in many of Napoleon's later paintings.
For example, in the above oil painting by the famous painter Ingres," "Napoleon", Napoleon wears this laurel leaf gold crown.
However, after this coronation, Napoleon held another coronation ceremony in Milan in 1805, crowning him as King of Italy. According to the famous collector and famous painter Jean-Baptiste Isabe (1767-1855): "In 1805, before leaving for Milan for the coronation, the King of Italy tried on a crown when a leaf fell off. Your Majesty said to me, keep it, as a souvenir of your clumsiness. ”
So this precious gold leaf became? Isabey's collection, later isabey's gold leaf, was later sold publicly in Cannes for up to 80,000 francs. The Palais de Fontainebleau, France, was finally acquired by exercising the state's right of first refusal.
But since Napoleon's defeat and the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty, the crown exclusive to Napoleon has also been destroyed.
In 1819, the exquisite crown was thrown into a furnace at the Paris Mint (la Monnaiede Paris), melted into a nugget of gold. The only gold leaves that escaped this fate were six from the goldsmith Biane's six daughters, and one from Isabey's collection.
But as time passed, it was also unknown whether the six daughters of the goldsmith Bionne still kept the precious gold leaves. Could it be that the last golden leaf in the world is this one of the Palace of Fontainebleau?
On November 19, 2017, at an auction in Paris, a gold leaf inherited from the daughter of a goldsmith appeared in the auction. Osna, an auctioneer at the time, said that the 10-gram bay leaf-shaped gold, if remelted and sold as gold, would be worth less than $500, but it was auctioned as a historical collection for 100,000 to 150,000 euros.
After the auction began, The Chairman of the Napoleon Foundation, Chalangsong, fought hard, but the gold leaf was still pocketed by two mysterious Chinese sellers for 625,000 euros (about 4.9 million yuan), and the gold leaf on Napoleon's crown once again made China and Napoleon have an extra intersection.
The golden leaf is now on display in Shenzhen, China, along with more than 160 court treasures from the Renaissance to the twentieth century, from the Renaissance "Advent of the Son" pendant, 13 crowns from different dynasties, and the most important national treasures of the Romanov dynasty... Many legendary European treasures were presented in the "Awakening: Treasures of the Court from the Renaissance to the Twentieth Century" at the Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning.
What other legends are these centuries-old treasures? Welcome to the scene and take a look.
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References/
"620,000 euros and 1 gold leaf, the origin is amazing, and it hides napoleon's most unsavory truth" - Lang Huazhi
"The appearance of a golden leaf makes the Chinese public read Napoleon again" - The Paper
"The 250th anniversary of Napoleon's birth, the crown gold leaf symbolizing power will be exhibited in China" - Beijing News?