Antiquaries in the Age of Romanticism: 1789-1851 - Queen Mary ...

Whittington was prepared to give Lenoir credit for his courage and enthusiasm in
salvaging the objects and to some extent ‘the taste which he has displayed in their
arrangement’. 35 His reservations, however, were grave:
The spectator of the Museum will still have to regret the want of that judgement in its disposition, which might have
converted an interesting exhibition of authenticated remains of antiquity, into a sensible lecture on the progress of
the arts, which, without ceasing to please as an object of curiosity, might have conveyed instruction in the most easy
and forcible manner. 36
In some of his detailed criticisms Whittington seems extraordinarily naïve about the
circumstances in which Lenoir’s collection was formed, complaining that certain periods are
under-represented and that there is not enough space. If Lenoir’s catalogue did harp somewhat
on the peculiarly French character of the art, involving a certain ‘bragging nationality’, it was on
those terms alone that he had been able to argue for its preservation. 37 Whittington’s
fundamental and reasonable objection, however, was that Lenoir was not well-enough informed.
The objects were often wildly misdated. In addition to this Whittington also disliked the
introduction of modern works of art to supply certain gaps and over one of the most celebrated
exhibits, the tomb of Abelard and Heloise, he found Lenoir’s ‘sensibility’, as evinced in the
catalogue description, an example of that ‘vanity and affectation which perpetually expose him
to ridicule’. 38
Standing in the first gallery, the former convent chapel, Dawson Turner felt quite
differently.
The entrance is by a spacious hall containing a general outline of French art, from some rude Gallic altars whose
dates go back to the earliest periods of the Roman Empire, thro’ a variety of gradations to the very summit of
perfection in sculpture, the beautiful mausoleum of Diane de Poitiers; (this tomb was actually broken to pieces by
the Democrats but M Lenoir has with great skill and judgement caused it to be restored) …the whole of this room is
35
Whittington, An Historical Survey of the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of France, p.163.
36
Whittington, An Historical Survey of the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of France, p.173.
37
Whittington, An Historical Survey of the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of France, p.169.
38
Whittington An Historical Survey of the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of France, p. 169.
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