It is no surprise, then, that
Napoleon commissioned David to paint a commemorative work depicting the
emperor's own coronation. Here is an
indelible scene: Napoleon, who had promised to serve the people, crowning
himself emperor. The man would go on to
conquer half of Europe and become one of history's most infamous dictators, but
here we see this brief moment of time before all of that happens; foreboding,
isn't it? The image of a man crowning
himself is perhaps an ominous image, but it is definitely one for us to
remember when considering the big political questions of our time. It's a magnificent painting, over thirty feet
long and twenty feet high. And the
artist gives no small attention to detail in this enormously painted scene
which is so full of radiant colors and brilliantly clad courtiers. Jacques-Louis David's painting of Napoleon's coronation
is one of my favorite paintings, so I could spend a long time discussing it—the
abundance of interesting characters in the scene, the significance of each
individual's placement in the scene and what they're holding or doing, the
artistic approach to producing the scene's atmosphere, the colors used, which
figures are painted taller than others and why, facial expressions, hidden
persons in the crowd, et cetera—but for now we must keep going.
No comments:
Post a Comment