The reliquary of Vivant Denon

2021-12-16T15:53:07.548Z

Dominique-Vivant Denon (1747-1825), was, at the beginning of the 19th century, the general director of the central museum of the Arts, that is to say of the Louvre. He is also a great collector who lives surrounded by wonders, so much so that at his death, the catalog of his collection contains no less than 900 pages! Among his favorite objects, there is a reliquary which contains not the relics of saints, but those of famous women and men. Because Vivant Denon is fascinated by the mortuary remains of famous people ... In his reliquary, we find a tooth of Voltaire, the piece of a shirt stained with the blood of Napoleon I, the hairs of the mustache of Henri IV, or even Molière bone fragments ...