L'Atelier des antiques du Louvre, 1793-1840

At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the massive influx of ancient sculptures – a consequence of the seizures carried out during the Revolution and subsequently under Napoleon – established Paris, after Rome, as the ‘second capital of restorers’.

By tracing the evolution of the figure of the sculptor-restorer during a pivotal period marked by the creation of the first modern museums, this book analyses how this activity—long considered marginal—became professionalised in the mid-18th century, conferring new prestige upon the restorer in the eyes of scholars and antiquarians, including Johann Joachim Winckelmann and Ennio Quirino Visconti.

Through the career of Bernard Lange (1754–1839), who trained under Carlo Albacini (1734–1813), and drawing on a rich body of often unpublished archival material, these micro-histories of restoration, set within a broader context, reveal the transfer of knowledge between Italy and France at a time when the Neoclassical style was gaining prominence as the first truly European artistic movement.