Louis Charles André Alexandre Du Mège or Dumège, (
The Hague
The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
(Netherlands) 5 December 1780 –
Toulouse
Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...
6 June 1862), was a French
scholar
A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...
,
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
and
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
.
Life and work
Du Mège was born in
The Hague
The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
on 5 December 1780. His father was an actor who moved to
Toulouse
Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...
in 1786 and from whom he inherited a collection of antiquities and a taste for
numismatics
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals, and related objects.
Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inclu ...
and
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
. His studies were rather limited, but he loved science, so he compensated by self study in the libraries he could frequent. He studied literature and history and after some years had enough knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew for his future career as an archaeologist. As a young man he traveled the
Pyrenées
The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto.
...
searching for sculptures, altars, and other antiquities of Volques Tectosages.
In 1814, the mayor of Toulouse entrusted him with the defense of the city based on instructions from Marshal
Jean-de-Dieu Soult
Marshal General Jean-de-Dieu Soult, 1st Duke of Dalmatia (; 29 March 1769 – 26 November 1851) was a French general and statesman. He was a Marshal of the Empire during the Napoleonic Wars, and served three times as President of the Council of ...
, but the army's corps of engineers did not approve his plan, a rejection for which he long held a grudge.
Du Mège was recognised for saving many antiquities of the department of
Haute-Garonne
Haute-Garonne (; , ; ''Upper Garonne'') is a department in the southwestern French region of Occitanie. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country's fourth-largest. ...
and was given the responsibility of organising the sculpture collection of the
Musée des Augustins
The Musée des Augustins de Toulouse () is a fine arts museum in Toulouse, France which conserves a collection of sculpture and paintings from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. The paintings are from throughout France, the sculptures rep ...
in the 1830s. His archaeological hobby became a vocation. He brought a number of medieval works into the museum, specifically from the cloister of Notre-Dame de la Daurade and the portal of the
chapter house
A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole communi ...
of
Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...
. Du Mège, the
Alexandre Lenoir
Marie Alexandre Lenoir (; 27 December 1761 – 11 June 1839) was a French archaeologist. Self-taught, he devoted himself to saving France's historic monuments, sculptures and tombs from the ravages of the French Revolution, notably those of Sain ...
of Toulouse, dreamed of creating in the Augustinian monastery the southern equivalent of the Museum of French Monuments: he reconstituted false tombs or real portals, and wrote contradictory descriptions of the collection's works in successive editions of the collection catalogs he published. Du Mège's disregard for archeological facts and record keeping superseded his collecting and preservation enthusiasm. In 1831 he co-founded the (Archaeological Society of the South of France). Then aged 50, he retrieved the antiquities and the medieval sculptures for the Musée des Augustins. A correspondent of the
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres).
History ...
, he created the archeological collections of the city of Toulouse.
Between 1840 and 1846 Alexandre Du Mège pursued the work of the Benedictines Devic and Vaissète by supplying a new complete edition of ''Histoire générale de Languedoc'' (General History of Languedoc) to publisher Jean-Baptiste Paya, generally considered unreliable and faulty. From 1836 to his death, he was the maintainer of the
Consistori del Gay Saber
The (; "Consistory of the Gay Science") was a poetic academy founded at Toulouse in 1323 to revive and perpetuate the lyric poetry of the troubadours.
Also known as the Acadèmia dels Jòcs Florals or Académie des Jeux Floraux ("Academy of th ...
.
In 1852, he imagined a
Neo-Gothic
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...
decoration for the crypts of the
Basilica of Saint-Sernin
The Basilica of Saint-Sernin (Occitan language, Occitan: ''Basilica de Sant Sarnin'') is a church in Toulouse, France, the former abbey church (building), church of the Abbey of Saint-Sernin or St Saturnin. Apart from the church, none of the abbe ...
. It was destroyed during the resumption of restoration work in the 1960s.
In spite of the faults that can be attributed to him, especially his lack of scientific rigor, he remains one of the main founders of the archeology of southern France, a character ''halfway between science and myth, uniting erudition and imagination, fiction and reality''.
The Nérac affair
The affair of the forged bas-relief of the Tetricus emperors found in excavations at
Nérac
Nérac (; , ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Lot-et-Garonne Departments of France, department, Southwestern France. The composer and organist Louis Raffy was born in Nérac, as was the former Arsenal F.C., Arsenal and FC Girondins de Bo ...
considerably damaged Du Mège's reputation. A marble bas-relief of the two emperors was discovered in 1832 in Nérac, department of
Lot-et-Garonne
Lot-et-Garonne (, ) is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. Named after the rivers Lot and Garonne, it had a population of 331,271 in 2019. Chrétin produced bas-reliefs and inscriptions attributed to Tetricus with the complicity of Du Mège.The authenticity of these pieces was quickly called into question and as early as 17 November 1834, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres proclaimed the inscriptions to be fake. Several of the inscriptions alluded to the existence of a certain "Néra", supposedly the wife of
Tetricus I
Gaius Pius Esuvius Tetricus was a Gallo-Roman culture, Gallo-Roman nobleman who ruled as Augustus, emperor of the Gallic Empire from 271 to 274 AD. He was originally the (provincial governor) of Gallia Aquitania and became emperor after the murd ...
. In a note in the Acts of the SAM (p. 209 of vol. 1), Du Mège claims to have discovered this Néra before Chrétin, thus proving his involvement with the forger. This deception almost destroyed the Société Archéologique du Midi which persisted in hiding the involvement of its secretary until recently, many of its dignitaries persisting in asserting in 1841, 1865, 1889 and even until 1940 that the famous
quadriga
A quadriga is a car or chariot drawn by four horses abreast and favoured for chariot racing in classical antiquity and the Roman Empire. The word derives from the Latin , a contraction of , from ': four, and ': yoke. In Latin the word is almos ...
preserved in the
Musée Saint-Raymond
(in English, ''Saint-Raymond museum'') is the archeological museum of Toulouse, France, opened in 1892. The site originally was a necropolis, and in later constructions was a hospital for the poor and pilgrims, prison, student residence, stable ...
is an authentic Roman piece, except for some inscriptions added by Chrétin. In a recent work, Hubert Delpont ripped these interpretations to shreds and demonstrated conclusively the involvement of Du Mège.
Musée Saint-Raymond
(in English, ''Saint-Raymond museum'') is the archeological museum of Toulouse, France, opened in 1892. The site originally was a necropolis, and in later constructions was a hospital for the poor and pilgrims, prison, student residence, stable ...
Notes
References
Works cited
*Auguste d’Aldéguier, ''Éloge de M. A. Du Mège'', fondateur et secrétaire général de la Société archéologique du midi de la France, dans Mémoires de la Société Archéologique du Midi de la France ', t. VIII (1861-1865), .
* Louis Bunel, ''Notice sur M. Alexandre Du Mège'', dans Alexandre Du Mège, Archéologie pyrénéenne… ' .- Toulouse : 1858–1863, 3 vol. ; t. III, .
*Auguste d’Aldéguier, ''Éloge de M. A. Du Mège'', dans Recueil de l'Académie des Jeux Floraux ', 1864, .
*Ad. Boudoin, ''Notice sur M. Du Mège'', dans Mémoires de l'Académie des Sciences, Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres de Toulouse ', VI series, I (1863), .
*Louis Soulé, Les hommes illustres de Toulouse : Le Chevalier du Mège de La Haye, dans Bulletin Municipal de la ville de Toulouse, avril 1940, , et juillet 1940, .
*F. Pélegrin, ''Alexandre Du Mège et les collections romanes du musée de Toulouse''.- Mémoire de maîtrise sous la direction de Marcel Durliat, Toulouse : Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail, 1970.
*Marcel Durliat, ''Alexandre Du Mège, Inspecteur des Antiquités de la Haute-Garonne. 1780-1862''.- Toulouse : Archives Départementales de la Haute-Garonne, 1972 atalogue d'exposition; 79 p.
*Marcel Durliat, ''Alexandre Du Mège et les mythes archéologiques à Toulouse dans le premier tiers du XIX siècle'', dans ''Revue de l'art'', nº 23 (1974), .
*Marie-Claude Pin-Leveel, ''Les papiers d'Alexandre Du Mège aux archives départementales, municipales et au musée des Augustins''.- Mémoire de maîtrise sous la direction de Marcel Durliat, Toulouse : Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail, 1976.
*''Toulouse et l’art médiéval de 1830 à 1870''. Musée des Augustins : octobre 1982-janvier 1983.- Toulouse : Musée des Augustins, 1983 atalogue d’exposition; 146 p.
*André Hermet, Alexandre du Mège, bibliophile, dans Mémoires de la Société Archéologique du Midi de la France, t. XLIV (1981-1982), .
*Maurice Scelles, ''À propos de "l'Archaeologie du Département de Tarn-et-Garonne" d'Alexandre Du Mège'', dans ''Bulletin de la Société Archéologique de Tarn-et-Garonne'', t. CX (1985) ; .
*Stéphanie Perris, ''Alexandre Du Mège ou l'itinéraire d'un collectionneur'' (1780-1862).- Monographie de muséologie sous la direction de Chantal Georgel, Paris : École du Louvre, 1996–1997, multigraphié ; 82 + 62 p.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Du Mege, Alexandre
Archaeologists from Toulouse19th-century French historiansForgersFrench numismatists1780 births1862 deaths