Jacques-Louis David was commissioned to represent the consecration of Napoleon, thus conveying the magnificence of the new emperor in an act with political features and a symbolic message. The work was commissioned orally in September 1804 and David was assisted by his pupil Rouget. The double victory in the Italian and Egyptian campaigns led Napoleon I to take power as first consul after the coup d’état of 18 Brumaire. In May 1804, he proclaimed himself emperor and was crowned in a ceremony on 2 December 1804 in Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, securing his imperial legacy by his authority in the French monarchy and Catholicism. Thus, a similarity was even sought with Charlemagne’s coronation as emperor both in date (December 800) and in the presence of the pope. David’s inspiration led him to take Rubens’s coronation of Maria de Medici as his compositional inspiration.
Collection: Images
Project: 4. Family, daily life and social inequality in Europe., 7. Persecuted by justice and powers: rebels, political dissidents and criminals in the history of Europe.
Chronology: XIX
Scope: Secondary education, Baccalaureate, University
Resource type: Image
Format: Oil on canvas (621 x 979 cm)
Source: Museo del Louvre (París)
Language: English
Date: 1805-7
Owner: Álvaro Romero González (Modernalia)
Identifier: 3699
Copyright: Museo del Louvre (París)
Abstract: Interior scene by the Romantic painter David in the 19th century showing the coronation of Napoleon as the new Emperor
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