#cisalpine republic

[napolebonasacc]

Napoléon Bonaparte Proclaiming the Cisalpine Republic in Milan 1797

{Art by Louis Lafitte}

The Proclaimed Cisalpine Republic was one of France’s ‘sister republics,’ created by uniting the Transpadane and Cispadane republics. Modeled on the French system and dependent on Paris, it included territories such as Milan, Parma, Modena, Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna, later expanding with Venetian lands. Though short-lived, it marked the spread of French revolutionary ideals in Italy, evolving into the Italian Republic (1802) and later the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy (1805), before being dissolved in 1814 by the Congress of Vienna.

[empirearchives]

Details of a hussar’s sabre of the Napoleonic era, 1802 - 1805

“Vivere Libero O Morire”, tr. Live Free or Die

“Viva La Repubblica Italiana”, tr. Long Live the Italian Republic.

The motto refers to the Italian Republic, a very short-lived Napoleonic state (1802-1805), born out of the Cisalpine Republic, whose president was Napoleon himself.

(Finarte)

[microcosme11]

Napoleon proclaims the birth of the Cisalpine Republic (pinterest)

[brooklynmuseum]

Small objects like commemorative medals were an important way to quickly disseminate a propagandistic image to the public. Napoleon Bonaparte looked to history for ways to communicate his power. In an allegory of the Cisalpine Republic—a country that Napoleon created out of a few regions of northern Italy that he conquered on behalf of France—Napoleon appears as the Greco-Roman deity Hercules helping a personification of Italy to her feet. To commemorate an alliance with Saxony, Napoleon aligned himself with Charlemagne, a Frankish king who created the first empire in Europe since Rome. The opposite side of this medal aligns Frederick Augustus I, who Napoleon installed as king of Saxony, and Widukind, the Saxon leader who submitted to Charlemagne.

Posted by Elizabeth Treptow Medal (Front and Back). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Dr. Marion Reilly, 29.190.11. Creative Commons-BY ⇨ Creative Commons-BY Medal (Front and Back). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Dr. Marion Reilly, 29.190.8. Creative Commons-BY

[cuirassier]

Troops of the Cisalpine Republic, 1797, R. Knotel. From left to right:

Infantry officer

Artilleryman ( in the background)

Hussar officer

Drummer boy

Infantryman

Officer of the Mounted rifles

National Guard infantryman

[empirearchives]

“The young Duphot was a general of the most beautiful hope. He was virtue itself.”

Napoleon on the 28 December 1797 assassination in Rome of Léonard Duphot (28), poet and brigadier general in the army of Italy.

Duphot was the same age as Napoleon, and was engaged to marry Désirée Clary, Napoleon’s first fiancée. His most beloved poem was Ode aux mânes des héros morts pour la liberté, or Ode to the ghosts of heroes who died for liberty.

[microcosme11]

Comices de la République Cisalpine tenues à Lyon, 1802 by Nicolas-Andre Monsiau, 1808.

wikimedia commons and versailles collections

[richard-knotel]