Published:
May 6, 2021 at 5:43 pm
Napoleon’s coronation took place in the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, on 2 December 1804. Clad from head to toe in satin and diamonds, he marched up the aisle, wearing high-heeled shoes and carrying the sceptre of Charlemagne in his right hand.
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He was received by the Pope, who had travelled from Rome for the enthronement. In a ceremony that was partly religious but mostly secular, Napoleon was crowned with a diadem of gold laurel leaves designed to make him look like a Roman emperor. He placed the crown firmly on his own head at the climax of the proceedings, rather than receive it from the Catholic Church, as custom demanded. The Pope looked on with barely suppressed disapproval.
Published:
May 3, 2021 at 7:01 am
The French Revolution of 1789 brought down the centuries-old regime of absolute monarchy and privileged nobility. In its place the revolutionaries founded a new regime based on principles of individual liberty, equal rights, and popular sovereignty. Yet the ensuing 10 years of political instability would be exploited by Bonaparte to seize power in a militarist regime which was, in some ways, more autocratic than that of Louis XVI and, in terms of the millions of casualties of the Napoleonic Wars, much more lethal.
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The Revolution smashed the stranglehold of hereditary privilege and venality, hitherto endemic in all parts of old regime society. Many young men profited from the ending of privilege to forge careers in the higher ranks of the army. Bonaparte was one of them. Although his family were minor nobility, they were also Corsican, and of Italian origin (France had conquered Corsica in 1769), the kind of people who, bef
Published:
April 9, 2021 at 7:05 am
Artists today generally paint what they wish to paint, hoping to make a living by selling their work at exhibitions or through dealers. But early in the Italian Renaissance, painters were regarded still as craftsmen rather than artists. They were ruled by the conventions of their workshops, and for any major painting commission they were at the behest of a client or patron. The patron might sometimes be benign, allowing their painter some independence, but often they were considerably more demanding. Contracts usually outlined in detail exactly what the painter was to show in his work, and imposed clear conditions on the quality of materials to be used, the delivery date and how much the painter would be paid.