Oct 14, 2024
Napoleon at His Court — A Group Portrait, by Andrea Appiani, c. 1796-98
“Appiani’s drawing suggests how difficult it was for artists to come to terms with the strictly personal nature of Bonaparte’s initiatives… Monarchical imagery failed to capture a fundamental quality of Bonaparte’s rise to power: the triumph of individual will. Without the advantage of birth and lineage, he was an extreme example of revolutionary meritocracy to which contemporaries could respond positively. Appiani does not represent the victorious general as a prince, although something of the theater of hierarchy, characteristic of court imagery, lingers in the pivotal role attributed to Bonaparte.”
Source: Philippe Bordes, Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile