Exhibition labels & didactics - National Gallery of Victoria

56
FRANCE
Pistol with Egyptian Revival decoration
Pistolet à décor dit retour d’Égypte
late 18th century
gilt metal
Musée de l’Armée, Paris inv. 12179
Napoleon’s unparalleled adventure in Egypt
ignited the contemporary imagination.
While Europe had long been fascinated
by Egypt, this was transformed after
Napoleon’s campaign into an absolute
mania for the mysteries of the land of the
pharaohs and the exoticism of a fantasised
orient. This passion blossomed into the
style known as Retour d’Égypte
(Egyptian Revival), which permeated the
decorative arts during the Consulate and
Empire periods. The wave of enthusiasm
quickly flooded into the phenomenon
of mass culture. Egyptomania was born.
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