Graduation Year
2015
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Art Conservation
Second Department
French Studies
Reader 1
Eric Haskell
Reader 2
Priyanka Basu
Reader 3
Mary MacNaughton
Rights Information
© 2015 Anna E. Sido
Abstract
This paper compares two art museums, both created during the French Revolution, that fostered national unity by promoting a cultural identity. By analyzing the use of preexisting architecture from the ancien régime, innovative displays of art and redefinitions of the museum visitor as an Enlightened citizen, this thesis explores the application of eighteenth-century philosophy to the formation of two museums. The first is the Musée Central des Arts in the Louvre and the second is the Musée des Monuments Français, both housed in buildings taken over by the Revolutionary government and present the seized property of the royal family and Catholic Church. Created in a violent and unstable political climate, these museums were an effective means of presenting the First Republic as a guardian of national property and protector of French identity.
Recommended Citation
Sido, Anna E., "Making History: How Art Museums in the French Revolution Crafted a National Identity, 1789-1799" (2015). Scripps Senior Theses. 663.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/663
Included in
Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture Commons, Cultural History Commons, European History Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Intellectual History Commons, Medieval Studies Commons, Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, Theory and Criticism Commons
