La Bataille de Deutsch Wagram 1809

André Massena ; Maréchal and Preservationist

Today's social pariah---or in some dramatic cases, today's war criminal will often become the great social benefactor of tomorrow... History is filled with many scoundrels whose sinister exploits taint their reputation in the generation in which they have lived, but as the generations which come after them march forward, the excesses of the war criminal; the plunderer or the looter become fainter and fainter, till one day, the title Patron of Civilization becomes bestowed upon them providing them with a saintly air. Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, becomes Nobel of the Prizes, honoring civilization’s greatest artists and scientists, yes and even peacemakers.

J. Paul Getty, who, when he lived, had a reputation as a ruthless oil baron. The tycoon was also known to be so cheap as to allow his grandson kept as a hostage by terrorists in squalid conditions for months, only to be returned to Getty’s family minus an ear. But years later, the Getty reputation soared with the opening of multiple museums in the hills above Bel-Air and the cliffs of Malibu. The Getty Foundation became exhibitor extraordinaire of the arts for encompassing virtually the entire history of civilization. If the reader has visited Los Angeles in recent years, there is a substantial chance he has been impressed by the noteworthy exhibitions at Getty’s two museums on that city’s toney west side. The writer of this piece was fortunate to visit one these exhibitions on the hills, just a breezy wisp from the beautiful blue Pacific, and was able to give witness to the magnificence of Napoleon’s Crossing of the Alps by David. This was just one of many exhibitions provided by the Getty Foundation. So as we drank our fill of the beauty of David, while enjoying the fresh ocean breezes in the wind-swept hills of Los Angeles, we said, “Thank you Mr. Getty!” Dare say, Mr. Getty’s multiple social sins have mainly been forgotten, while our thirst for civilization and the arts is quenched by the generosity of this benefactor and the Getty Foundation.

Those readers, who have visited the South of France, Nice in particular, are probably familiar with another great benefactor, Andre Massena, Marshal of France, Duke of Rivoli and Prince of Essling. This great revolutionary and imperial general gave France, and should we say, Western Civilization, a dynasty blessed with generations of successors, who have continued Massena’s legacy of providing us with his rich and extensive collection of the arts.

One of the daughters of this author told her tale of her visit to Nice just a few years ago. She is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an aficionado of the history of the Revolution and the First Empire, but her visit to Nice was made most memorable by her visit to the Musee Massena, which is located close to the coastline perched on sun-drenched hillside on the Côte d’Azur. She waxed effusively in her description of beauty of the buildings and grounds of the legacy of the Massena fortune, even though

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