Towards immortality

[Kyle Moore]

Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass (1801)
Painter: Jacques-Louis David

You've just finished a successful coup-d'etat; so what's your next move? Did I mention you were a brilliant military commander? Well if I were you, I would go to Italy by crossing the Alps, and defeat a large Austrian force in a pitched battle at Alessandria. Because of this, the Austrian forces in Italy will almost immediately send a request for negotiations, ultimately leading to their leaving of Northern Italy. This early initial success will solidify your position in France politically.

But how are you going to really place yourself on the level of a leader of a kingdom? You are of common birth, and only a general after all, not of nobility. You aren't even a natural born citizen of the country in which you rule! You're from some little island in the Med., Corsica, I believe. Important people have portraits of themselves. You're different though, you're a military leader at heart, so if you decide to have a portrait made of you, it's got to be of you in action. It has to be inspiring, showing your inevitable victory, and your eventual rise to greatness. And you've got to be directly linked to France somehow, your new home, your adoptive home.

So you decide to commemorate your victory by commissioning a portrait be painted of your "heroic" crossing of the Alps. Reminiscent of Hannibal's crossing, where he completely devastated the Roman armies. The Alps are difficult terrain to cross with any army, but you accomplished it! The painting therefore, will only show your military genius, initiative and courage, not the strategic errors you committed while in the field. Ultimately you were successful, so that's all that matters, right? We'll even incorporate a few artillery pieces in the background, since we know you love them so much.



At the bottom left of the portrait, you can see inscriptions in the rocks. The inscriptions are for Napoleon, Hannibal, and Charlemagne (tying him to France, since he is a French national hero). All three of them crossed the Alps for military incursions into Italy.

[Kyle Moore]

To my knowledge, I thought he was the son of a diplomat. A privileged position, but not of noble status I thought. If it does mean he was nobility, I'm assuming he'd have of been of minor noble status. But either way, a "dark horse" no one could have expected to rule an empire. A successful general, yes, but not an empire.

Unfortunately, I'm not as well read on the 1789 revolution and it's consequences, so my assessment would be purely speculative.

[John Lee]

Great - I really like tone of your post. It has that edge of your seat feel to it, while also encouraging us to engage French history and the rise of Napoleon. The grand sweep of history across the bottom of the page with the inscriptions of Hannibal, Charlemagne, and Napoleon open another window into a study of the past. Readers of this painting might take any number of other diversions as you suggested, French Revolution, Napoleon's coup, expansionist policies of France under Napolon, but I particularly like the idea of Napoleon rise. Although not really of Great - I really like tone of your post. It has that edge of your seat feel to it, while also encouraging us to engage French history and the rise of Napoleon. The grand sweep of history across the bottom of the page with the inscriptions of Hannibal, Charlemagne, and Napoleon open another window into a study of the past. Readers of this painting might take any number of other diversions as you suggested, the French Revolution, Napoleon's coup, the expansionist policis of France under Napolon, but I particularly like the idea of Napoleon rise to power. Although we might not go so far as to say that Napoleon was of "common birth," at least not what we would think of as common in the working class or peasant sense, Napoleon did not have an obvious path to his ultimate position. One question to ask is to what extend did the 1789 revolution enable his rise. Or even, how did Napoleon's minor noble status affect his rise?