historical Napoleon crossed the Alps in r8oo on the Marengo campaign
by mule - the only way to negotiate the icy passes - the mythical figure in
David's painting is seen triumphant on a rearing horse.
Napoleon's favourite painting by David was Napoleon in his Study.
There is a sword on the chair, the Code Napoleon is on the desk, and the
clock shows the time at 4.31 a.m. The propaganda intent is obvious: here
is the First Consul slaving away for the good of his people at an hour
when they are all in bed. Yet for all that he was delighted with this work,
and with the famous painting of the coronation in r8o4, Napoleon was
never entirely happy with David. He objected to his portraits of antiquity
on the ostensible ground that David's classical heroes seemed too effete
and weedy to wield modern weapons. But what really worried him was
that the subject of David's studies of antiquity- concerned with Spartan
austerity, Republican virtue, the Roman severity of Cato the Elder, the
self-sacrifice of Brutus, etc - were at a deep level subtly subversive of the
imperial ethos.
For this reason Napoleon always preferred the work of David's pupils,
especially Franc;:ois Gerard, Antoine Gros and Jean-Auguste Ingres.
Gerard specialized in paintings illustrating the exploits of Ossian, the
hero of the controversial 'epic' by James Macpherson, Napoleon's
favourite author; in battle scenes; and in motifs from Greek and Roman
myths. Gros was the man for the outright propaganda. His Napoleon at
Arcole helped to transform the hard-fought battles of the 1796---97 Italian
campaign into an image of effortless triumph by a superman, while his
celebration of the famous incident in Syria in 1799, Napoleon visiting the
plague victims of Jaffa, turns Bonaparte into a Christ-like figure.
Historical distortion reaches its apogee in Gros's Napoleon at the Battle of
Eylau. Sober fact records that Napoleon's casualties at the dreadful and
indecisive battle with the Russians fought in a snowstorm at Eylau in
r 807 were horrific and that his generalship was not of the best. Gros,
however, presents the Emperor as a kind of Florence Nightingale avant Ia
lettre, comforting and blessing the dying. Ingres was not much better. His
Napoleon as First Consul suggests that Bonaparte is primarily a civilian, an
unwilling Cincinnatus pitchforked into politics by his country's pressing
need. Ingres's Napoleon on his Throne goes completely over the top,
portraying the Emperor as a combination of Jupiter, Augustus and
Charlemagne.
Imperial fever in French painting probably reached its apogee around
r8ro. In that year the Paris salon was dominated by such entries as
David's Distribution of the Eagles, Gerard's Battle of Austerlitz, Girodet's
The Revolt of Cairo and Gros's The Battle of the Pyramids. Additionally,
marcin
(Marcin)
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