Napoleon and His Artists - Hardcover

Wilson-Smith, Timothy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0094761108 ISBN 13: 9780094761100

Publisher: Constable & Robinson Ltd, 1996

Synopsis

For twenty years, Napoleon seemed to stride the world like a Colossus. Invincible hero to his countrymen and their allies, monstrous and terrifying to his enemies, he was a legend in his own lifetime. But legends are made as well as born, and as Timothy Wilson-Smith fascinatingly reveals, Napoleon's gigantic stature rested not only on his personal and military genius but on his deliberate exploitation of the visual arts. Using architects to design the most sumptuous settings for him, sculptors to make his presence felt all over France, and painters to commemorate every incident in his career, he created for himself an image that was larger than life and would endure long beyond his death.
Napoleon and his Artists tells of an age rich with the names of David, Gericault, Gerard, Ingres, the sculptors Houdon and Canova. It shows how the Neo-Classicism of the period, which - literally - enabled artists to draw comparisons between Napoleon and Alexander, Napoleon and Julius Caesar, was transformed into le style Empire, its formalities glamorised by motifs taken from the Egyptian campaigns. It describes how, just as Augustus rebuilt Rome, Napoleon worked through his architects Fontaine and Percier to recreate Paris as the premier capital of Europe; and how the grandiose personal myth he so carefully fostered informed every area of art and craft, from furniture to military uniforms, carpets to ceramics.

About this title

About the Author:

Timothy Wilson-Smith teaches history and art history at Eton College.

About this edition

• Publisher: Constable & Robinson Ltd
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0094761108
• ISBN 13: 9780094761100
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 306