Toussaint-Bernard Émeric-David (20 August 17552 April 1839) was a French

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 writer on art.

Life

Éméric-David was born in

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...

. He gained a law degree at the university at Aix-en-Provence in 1775. Destined for the legal profession, and having gone in 1775 to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to complete his legal education, he acquired there a taste for art which influenced his whole future career. He went to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, where he continued his art studies. He soon returned, however, to his native village, and followed for some time the profession of an advocate; but in 1787 he succeeded his uncle Antoine David as printer to the

parlement Under the French Ancien Régime, a ''parlement'' () was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 ''parlements'', the original and most important of which was the ''Parlement'' of Paris. Though both th ...

. He was elected mayor of Aix in 1791, but as the French Revolution worsened for public officials, he moved to Paris and then briefly into hiding during the

Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the French First Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and Capital punishment in France, nu ...

. For some time to adopt a vagrant life. When danger was past he returned to Aix, sold his printing business, and engaged in general commercial pursuits; but he was not long in renouncing these also in order to devote himself exclusively to literature and art. Paris became his new home and he resolved to be an art historian. From 1809 to 1814, under the

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

, he represented his ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

'' in the Lower House (''Corps législatif''); in 1814 he voted for the downfall of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

; in 1815 he retired into private life, and in 1816 he was elected a member of the Institute (

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 died in Paris on 2 April 1839.

Works

Éméric-David was placed in 1825 on the commission appointed to continue ''L'Histoire littraire de la France''. His principal works are ''Recherches sur l'art statuaire, considéré chez les anciens et les modernes'' (Paris, 1805), a work which obtained the prize of the institute; ''Choix de pièces: notices sur divers tableaux du Musée Napoléon'' (Paris, 1812); ''Suite d'études calquées et dessinées d'après cinq tableaux de Raphaël'' (Paris, 1818–1821), in 6 vols.; ''Jupiter: Recherches sur ce dieu, sur son culte, et sur les monuments qui le représentent'' (Paris, 1833), 2 vols., illustrated; and ''Vulcain'' (Paris, 1837).

Legacy

A street in the centre of

named in his honor.Google Maps
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References

Attribution: *

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emeric-David, Toussaint-Bernard 1755 births 1839 deaths Mayors of Aix-en-Provence Aix-Marseille University alumni 19th-century French archaeologists 19th-century French historians Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery French male non-fiction writers