#napoleon as mars the peacemaker

[empirearchives]

“What Napoleon criticised in the statue could perhaps be summed up in one thing: his uneasiness at the sight of his own nudity. And it was precisely his nudity that was felt to be problematic, even shocking. But how did Canova come to have the odd idea of representing Napoleon as a nude divinity?”

— Valérie Huet, Napoleon I: A New Augustus?

The nude statue of Napoleon in question:

[monimarat]

Maxime and Napoleon in Milan

[eunikia]

Antonio Canova, Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker, Wellington Museum (Apsley House), London

I'm speechless...

[escapismsworld]

Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker, Antonio Canova

[napoleonbonaparte4ever]

Napoleon Bonaparte... The rightful owner of all women's hearts!

[flock-of-cassowaries]

Enemies to Enemies Whose Psychosexual Issues Can Only Be Adequately Expressed Through Statuary.

Sorry I wasn't listening to you, I was thinking about the Duke of Wellington's personal 11-foot-tall statue of nude, totally jacked Napoleon.

Twitter thread! (and yes Kate Beaton's "Nemesis" comic comes up)

[lux-vitae]

Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker by Antonio Canova (c. 1802-06)

[liammeoww]

It looked better in my imagination, lol💀

Anyways, here is Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker (I did NOT bother drawing the thing thats on the ball that he holds in his hand, hell naw)

[fruityyamenrunner]

Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker is a colossal heroic nude statue by the Italian artist Antonio Canova, of Napoleon I of France in the guise of the Roman god Mars. He holds a gilded Nike or Victory standing on an orb in his right hand and a staff in his left. It was produced between 1802 and 1806 and stands 3.45 metres to the raised left hand. Once on display in the Louvre in Paris, it was purchased from Louis XVIII in 1816 by the British government, which granted it to the Duke of Wellington.

[graaaaceeliz]

Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker, by request

I apologise for his blurry face, the light was awkward, bur there's an excellent photo of his backside to make up for it. Napoleon knew nobody would buy that he actually looked like this and so had the statue covered up and hidden away.

I went to Apsley House today, which is where Wellington lived in London after the wars! There's too many photos to send you, but highlights include the naked Napoleon statue which is too big to go anywhere but the stairwell, the truly ridiculous amount of gold/gold plated crockery, several busts of his descendents easily recognisable by The Nose,..... I can go on. I've condensed it down into this bust ft. The Nose (Hugh Fraser really did bear a startling resemblance) and the boss of the Waterloo Shield.

Photos of Napoleon available on request. I just think that's a slightly strange thing to chuck into someone's inbox, sharpe obsession or not.

Yes, thank you, unsolicited photos of Wellington ephemera are indeed welcome in this house. That boss is SICK, god, imagine that just being a thing you own. And a giant statue of yourself naked, I mean, is there really any better power move when having guests over? Ultimate icebreaker. You know that place is Known among the Doordash folks.

Also, I feel like I heard lore somewhere--maybe History Hack?-- that at some memorial there's a statue of Wellington that they modeled off Hugh Fraser. I almost want to say it's Waterloo but I feel in my heart that can't be right. Anybody know?

Seeing Hugh Fraser as angsty Wellington after watching him as affable Cpt Hastings in Poirot is such a great trip, I keep wanting him to say "...good lord" like he does with David Suchet, but no, he's all "I'd rather have the surgeon saw off my goddamn foot."

Anyway, thank you for the photos!

[kaxenart]

@usergreenpixel replied to your post “For the purposes of suggestions, I do consider...”:

Eugene de Beauharnais!

​We always talk about how Wellington has Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker, but Eugene bought one of the plasters.

[kaxen]

SOMETIMES YOUR HEART IS JUST FULL WITH A STUPID COMPULSION TO PRINT NAPOLEON AS MARS THE PEACEMAKER IN BRIGHT PINK.

A couple pinholes, but that is quick to fill in and will be a quick sanding job (the glossy points are from adding a lil’ resin to fill it in) and need to sand off some of the more blatant support pock marks. His staff warped a little. Guess I should have put some supports on that.

Probably gonna hit him with a gloss coat. 

If you would like to print your own, the STL file is available from Scan the World. 

[gabrielferaud]

this is just things that I personally find really funny but

- that he managed to fucking shoot one of his marshals in the head?

- mars the peacemaker, both that napoleon thought it was really embarrassing and that george iv gave it to wellington

- kidnapping the pope twice (ik the first time was the directory but whatevs) and napoleon got him to agree to things by just yelling at him and threatening him a bunch?

- wellington getting money from the british govt to buy a house,,, which he buys from pauline’s husband’s family,,, but the reason she was selling the house was so that napoleon would have money to escape from elba

- that napoleon was the first person to start calling josephine that and she went by rose before she met him

- napoleon’s mom not attending his coronation so he had her painted in

im sure theres more that im forgoring

Funniest Napoleonic Era moment GO

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

Prinny presents Arthur with the Buff Napoleon Statue then insists on having a party to unveil it. For once both Napoleon and Arthur are both embarrassed

Hahahaha unexpectedly, completely out of left field for both, they find themselves unified by Prinny’s Bad Ideas and a mutual dislike of One (1) Statue of Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker.

This would absolutely prompt some ridiculous hijinks to stop the unveiling from going forward. At some point Napoleon is like, ‘that’s it. I’m going to live in a hut in the Hebrides as a shepherd. I’m sure no one has heard of me up there. They probably think James I is still king of England.’

Arthur cackles. But he’s also committed to not having That Statue in his house.

Too late. The floor has already been reinforced to hold it.

[ellynneversweet]

Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker, 1806, Antonio Canova

[captainknell]

Ghostly Napoleon is unhappy

Imagine your favorite historical figure as a ghost next to a statue of themselves and complaining about it