As we saw in the previous article, the removal of paintings from the country was a common occurrence, but during the war everything that had been happening more or less discreetly during peacetime intensified. At the beginning of the conflict, the regions most plundered were those in northern Spain, which were stripped mainly of church silver and jewelry. Between 1808 and 1814, there was a major looting of assets, and even worse: their destruction. Troops went so far as to open tombs to collect any possible jewels they might find, as happened at the Basilica of San Isidoro in León. The immovable heritage also suffered severe damage due to cannon fire or was reduced to ashes, or used as powder magazines or stables (Querol, 2010, pp. 16-17).
To highlight some examples, the jewels of the relic of Zaragoza disappeared, Córdoba was plundered by General Dupont's troops, El Escorial was looted, and King Bonaparte confiscated public or private collections of art, jewelry, silver, etc., leaving the monarchy without its most significant jewels. The French art dealer Jean-Baptiste Lebrun had been tasked with finding treasures to send to Paris to form part of the Napoleon Museum (future Louvre Museum). Many of the paintings that Lebrun smuggled out later enriched the galleries of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.
Frédéric Quilliet, considered one of the greatest experts on Spanish painting, was appointed by José Bonaparte as administrator of National Assets, Commissioner of Fine Arts, and Artistic Attaché to the armies in Andalusia: he was responsible for overseeing Spain's artistic heritage during the invasion. Quilliet traveled throughout Spain with the mission of confiscating pieces for the future creation in Madrid of the Joséphine Museum, a museum housed in the Palacio de Buenavista modeled after Napoleon's Parisian museum.
This museum was to be partly supplied by the Real Decree of July 18, 1809, which suppressed religious orders, and subsequent measures of desamortization through which assets would pass into state hands. To these confiscated works were added others from the Royal Collection and private collections such as Godoy's. Quilliet accompanied José Bonaparte around Andalusia advising on the selection of pieces. He managed to gather 999 paintings in Seville's Alcázar (Gómez-Imaz, 1897). Quilliet was accompanied by the previously mentioned British painter G.A. Wallis (agent in Spain for the antiquarian William Buchanan) and the painter Manuel Napoli, of Neapolitan origin settled in Spain, who was chosen to restore the requisitioned paintings. It was during this period that the fraudulent sale of one of Velázquez's works took place: The Rokeby Venus (Fig.1, currently at the National Gallery in London).
In 1810, Quilliet was relieved of his duties due to questionable honesty. Nevertheless, he is famous as the author of works for the dissemination of Spanish painting abroad, such as Dictionnaire des peintres espagnols (1816). In the Battle of Vitoria (1813), which ended the war, Quilliet lost all his belongings. He returned to France and then traveled to Italy to continue in the trade as a dealer.
Quilliet was replaced by a commission consisting of Napoli (who continued in his role as restorer), and the painters Francisco de Goya and Mariano Salvador Maella. These were tasked with selecting works for the museum, the Cortes Hall, the Senate, and 50 paintings to be given to the emperor, this last task being of primary importance. The works began to be deposited in Madrid from 1810 at the former convents of Rosario, Trinidad, Felipe el Real, and San Francisco El Grande. This commission did not yield the expected results, which has been interpreted as an act of sabotage. The creation of the Joséphine Museum was thwarted, but not so the sending of the 50 paintings to the emperor, who received them in Paris in July 1813, adding them to another 250 taken there by the museum's director, Dominique Vivant, baron Denon. Vivant Denon was in Spain a month after Napoleon went there in 1808 to support his brother José I. It was then that Denon selected 250 works as compensation for the war.
But not all were confiscations on behalf of the French state: a list of officers and generals enriched their personal collections. Although sometimes paintings were given by King José, most often they were acquired personally by the generals themselves. To prevent the uncontrolled exportation of artworks, a new decree was issued on August 1, 1810, prohibiting the exportation of paintings (renewing that of 1779), though with little success. Undoubtedly one of the most avid generals was Marshal Soult. He was called the modern Verres (Cano Rivero, 2015), because both abused their power to make presents. As General in Chief of the Army in Andalusia, his activity centered on Córdoba and Seville. He came to possess several paintings by Alonso Cano, Zurbarán or Murillo. Among them, perhaps the most famous is The Immaculate Conception, a work by Murillo for the Hospital de los Venerables in Seville, known as La Inmaculada de Soult (Fig.2).
When the war ended, he left the country with a baggage of carriages loaded with paintings. Once sent to France, they hired the renowned restorer Jean Louis Hacquin to reline and restore them. Of all the works that he took from Spain, only five were returned to the Louvre Museum in life thanks to diplomacy.
General Horace Sebastiani extracted many pieces from Murcia and later Granada. Like Soult and other French generals, he was given paintings from El Escorial by José I. Sebastiani focused more on Italian masters, as evidenced by the over two hundred paintings with which he adorned his collection. It is to him that the painting Saint Thomas of Villanueva as a Child Distributing Alms by Murillo, belonging to the church of San Agustín in Seville, owes its place in the Cincinnati Museum. Other generals who benefited from gifts for their collections were Joachim Murat, General Caulaincourt, Jean Baptiste Eblé, Jean Joseph Desolles or General Dupont.
The bibliographic and archaeological heritage was also the object of speculation and looting. The books and manuscripts from monasteries and royal libraries such as El Escorial were always under threat by Quilliet. As for the archaeological heritage, it suffered intense plundering of artifacts. Unprotected sites fell victim to local populations and troops alike. For example, the ruins of Sagunto, the Roman city of Itálica, and the necropolis of Baza all suffered looting during the war years.
The pieces that were meant to form part of the ill-fated Joséphine Museum and many others from Royal Collections ended up forming what is known as King Joseph's Luggage (Fig. 3), as Pérez Galdós named it in his National Episodes.The Intruder King left for France accompanied by nearly two thousand carriages loaded with treasures of all kinds (sculptures, porcelains, goldsmithing) and paintings rolled up for better handling, often crudely cut from their stretchers and frames. In Vitoria they were intercepted by troops led by The Duke of Wellington. José Bonaparte managed to return to France leaving behind his loot. The canvases found were guarded by Wellington, except for a shipment that made it to Paris without being intercepted by the British. These paintings were later recovered through diplomatic maneuvers.
The paintings intercepted by Wellington were taken to his London residence, Apsley House. After confirming that most of the works belonged to Royal Collections, the Duke intended to return them to the recently restored Fernando VII, initiating conversations through his brother Henry, British ambassador in Madrid. Upon receiving no response, he tried again with Count Fernán Nuñez, Spanish ambassador in London. The answer from Fernando VII was unexpected and surprising: he gave them away. Since then, the collection of 165 Spanish paintings of the Duke of Wellington is known as The Spanish Gift..
From 1915 onwards, diplomatic maneuvers by former occupied countries began to try and reclaim looted pieces, although while some were recovered, the majority now hang in museums around the world.
Conclusions
The Napoleonic wars represented one of the great diasporas of heritage on a large scale in Europe and North Africa. For Spain, the French government and the passage of troops during the war generated irreparable damage to the heritage and the exodus of a considerable amount of assets, mainly Spanish paintings. Although many canvases were recovered immediately after the occupation, it is true that due to the vagueness of data and fraudulent sales, much of what was collected by French generals ended up in foreign markets shortly thereafter, now adorning galleries around the world. Paradoxically, this led to greater recognition and appreciation for Spanish art, which had been practically unknown to the European market.
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