Dominique Vivant Denon à Malte : des Lumières au bonapartisme

Abstract

Dominique Vivant Denon (1747-1825 ), who came twice to Malta in the second half of the 18th century, wrote the accounts of his visits in the books: Voyage en Sicile, 1st edition, 1788, and Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte, 1st edition, 1802.In 1778, Denon was secretary at the French Embassy in Naples. That year he went on a cultural tour to southern Italy and then Malta. His description of Valletta is an anthology piece and his observations on the frescoes of Mattia Preti are among the earliest we have by an expert artist. He was moved on seeing peasants toiling endlessly on their barren island. In 1798, Denon set sail with the fleet that was to invade Egypt. There he was going to make some one thousand drawings of the monuments of the Pharoahs. He describes the capture of Malta by Bonaparte and then attends a dinner given by the General during which he has the opportunity to see the newly appointed Maltese administrators. Denon believed that Malta could become useful to a particular sector of the French economy : agriculture. Tropical plants could be acclimatized on the island before they were grown in Provence.