How does The Exaltation of the Flower elucidate its Background?
French archaeologist and historian Léon Heuzey began working with the French School at Athens in Greece at the age of 20 in 1851. He made his most famous discovery of that period in the town of Farsala, a city in southern Thessaly. In antiquity, the area was named Pharsalos, and became known for the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BCE, where Julius Caesar defeated Pompey during the Great Roman Civil War.Heuzey and the architect Honoré Daumet were involved in an official mission to collect objects related to Caesar's campaigns; they also were interested in other artifacts unrelated to their work. In 1861, they found this marble bas-relief embedded in the walls of a church in the neighborhood of Paleo-Loutro in Farsala and named it The Exaltation of the Flower.  Heuzey was informed that the stone was originally discovered in a garden, close to another stone that was not recovered. Heuzey purchased the stone and had it sent to the Louvre in Paris. Back in France, Heuzy would become curator of the Louvre, where he would retire in 1908.
Julius Caesar Farsala French School at Athens Louvre Battle of Pharsalus Honoré Daumet Pompey Great Roman Civil War bas-relief Paris Greece Thessaly Léon Heuzey