Jacques-Louis David - The coronation of Napoleon

• Title: The coronation of Napoleon (Le sacre de Napoléon)
• Artist: Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
• Date: c. 1805-07
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 621 x 979 cm

The painting “The coronation of Napoleon” was commissioned by Napoleon, was made to please him and is huge- over 6m high and 9m wide. It represents the ceremony held on December 2, 1804, in the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris where Napoleon crowned himself and his wife Josephine, in the presence of Pope Pius VII, of all of Napoleon’s family (his mom is sitting prominently at the balcony despite not actually having been there), and of all the important people of his empire, such as Talleyrand, Murat and Berthier. The new emperor broke from tradition by crowning himself and pronouncing an oath guaranteeing the preservation of the gains of the French Revolution and not only the interests of the Catholic Church and Justice in general.

The painting is all about the grandeur and self-sufficiency of Napoleon - he is standing, dressed in coronation robes similar to those of Roman emperors; others are merely passive spectators, particularly the Pope who is sitting behind him; all eyes are turned towards him, the center of the composition; the space around Napoleon makes him stick out thanks also to the use of lighter colors for the top of his body against a darker pillar of the church and the vertical axes (the golden cross, the pastoral staffs and in the foreground the hand of justice on a staff and the sceptre).