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and little grasp of social graces who, in consequence, agents of the Republic in foreign countries.’ It was
would precipitate into a scandal’.19 No doubt this certainly an appropriate sartorial statement since
intelligent, polyglot man (he spoke Latin, Italian, Miot was the public face of the Republic in
English and German), a former war commissioner Florence.21 Gauffier wanted to represent Miot as a
under the ancienne régime, a constitutional moderate man who had become ‘le soldat de la Liberté’, so occu-
and a dedicated civil servant, soon disabused his pied in the service of the République and its aims that
detractors of these impressions. An etching by Jean- nothing, not even family ties, could distract him from
Baptiste Wicar dated 1796 allows us to identify its pursuit. Significantly, Gauffier clearly sets Miot
Gauffier’s sitter (Fig.1). apart from his family: his brother Jacques-François
Miot (1779-1858)22; his wife Adélaïde-Joséphine, née
Immediately recognisible at the extreme right of the d’Arcambal (1764-1841)23, elegantly coiffed à la
painting, soberly dressed in comparison to the Titus, wearing a white silk day dress in the latest
extraordinary uniforms of the Directory armies, the French style; and his two children René-Hyacinthe
diplomat wears a powdered wig and a simple cockade (1795-1815)24, who was to later to perish at
is clipped to his silk hat. Conformity to the principles Waterloo, and Rosalie (1792-1866)25 the future
of the Constitution of 1794 stipulated that ‘all mem- Countess Fleischmann.The foreign minister tenderly,
bers of the Directoire and all public functionaries must if absently, caresses his small daughter’s hair while his
appear in official costume in order to incur the respect gaze, turned away towards the middle distance,
of the legislature and of its agents.’20 Effectively, Miot expresses the steely determination of this republican
is dressed in the tricolore: he wears a blue frock coat, hero. Not co-incidentally, he poses proudly beside a
white waistcoat and a crimson mantle. This costume bust of Lucius Junius Brutus (First Consul c. 509
probably was an invention based either on the concept B.C.), traditionally revered as the founder of the
of ‘national dress’ or ‘the representative dress for Roman Republic, a figure who would appear to be

21. Florence 1er prairial an 4 ‘Je m’applaudis, Citoyen ministre d’avoir adopté à l’égard du costume nécessaire aux agents de la République en Pays Etrangers l’usage
qui vient d’être consacré par une décision du Directoire exécutif. Dés les premiers jours de ma mission j’ai choisis l’uniforme national comme l’habit de représentation le plus
convenable puisqu’il rappelle les lois et la gloire de la République. Ceux qui parlent en son nom aux puissances étrangères ne peuvent que s’honorer d’être aussi soldat de la
Liberté et de le rappeler par leur costume,’ Letter from Miot de Melito, Archives du Ministères des Affaires Etrangères.
22. Jacques-François Miot (Versailles, 1779- Paris, 1858) was employed by the Commission for Foreign Affairs from 1793. He followed his brother from
the commission to Florence and was employed on a number of diplomatic missions. As a military attaché to the corps of war commissioners he partici-
pated in the Egyptian campaign and also in Syria. As a titular commissioner at the military camp in Boulogne he was nominated a captain in the 4th regi-
ment of the line under the command of Joseph Bonaparte. He took part in the battle of Austerlitz, later following Joseph and his brother first to Naples
and later to Spain. Created a colonel in 1809 he also participated in the whole Iberian campaign. After 1814, unlike his brother, he continued serving the
new government. He was nominated a general officer under the Restoration and Director of the École de la Flèche right up to his retirement. His mili-
tary file is preserved at the château de Vincennes (8Y D 2790), with a further file at the Archives Nationales de la Légion d’Honneur.
23. Adélaïde, née d’Arcambal, was Jacques-Philippe d’Arcambal’s sister (1751-1843). Hyacinthe-François d’Arcambal was Chief Commissioner for the
Armée de Rome, then later in Naples. He subsequently held numerous posts : Director-General of the army at Championnet; former Secretary-General
to the administration of Corsica ; as secretary under the ministry of M. de Saint-Germain, he had been fortunate to escape the massacres during the
Revolution and was appointed as a director in 1798. In March of the next year he became Minister of War to the ephemeral République Parthénopéenne.
24. René-Hyacinthe Miot (Florence ?, 1795- Waterloo, 1814) was a page to Joseph Bonaparte at his court in Naples, He was also a cavalry lieutenant in
1810 and aide de camps to General Jamin de Bermy at Waterloo. His military file is conserved at the Château de Vincennes (8Y D 2790).
25. Rosalie Miot ( ? – after 1858), married General Count d’Fleischmann, the King of Württemberg’s ambassador to the court Louis-Philippe. The sole
heir to Count Miot’s estate, she collected all his papers, which her husband published in 1858.

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