dec 2, 1804 - Coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte

Description:

The Coronation of Napoleon (David, 1805-08)

Napoleon faced a difficult challenge as emperor. On one hand he sought to legitimize his rule as part of the legacy of French monarchs, deriving his authority from the grace of the Catholic Church; on the other hand he was a ruler of a peoples who had sent their last monarch to the guillotine only a few decades ago. Napoleon here seeks rule not in the style of the extravagant French monarchs however, he sought to equate himself with the Roman rulers of Antiquity. This fit well with David’s Neoclassical style which he used to embellish the setting- The Notre Dame Cathedral- even beyond the Imperial Architects’ actual decoration for the event. Napoleon wears a laurel wreath and is in the act of crowning the Empress; the Pope stands behind him, his powerlessness in comparison to the king makes him resemble the Pontifex Maximus. Napoleon found in David an artist whose reverence for the Classical style was a suitable foil for the depiction of his reign as an Enlightened monarch following objective thought over irrational monarchs that preceded him.