#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:

[miffy-junot]

'A problem arose when Napoleon was confronted with Canova's plan to depict him naked, as Mars the Peacemaker: the real hero is the god himself. The statue aroused hostility; it was not exhibited at the Salon of 1810 and remained hidden behind a partition at the Louvre. Canova made a note of the several conversations he had had with Napoleon in 1810: "We discussed the custom of clothing statues and I told him that with French dress like his, God himself would be unable to create a beautiful sculpture, that the language of sculpture was the nude, with the drapery appropriate to that art."'

source: Citizens and Kings, portraits in the age of revolution 1760-1830

[monimarat]

Maxime and Napoleon in Milan

[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.

[eunikia]

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

I'm speechless...

[ic-napology]

Here you go:

napoleon buttocks

murat has COMPETITION

[escapismsworld]

Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker, Antonio Canova

[corbenic]

Princess Imperial 1.21

They were greeted by a butler, who took their coats and tried coaxing Evie into surrendering her purse. She refused. He pursed his lips, then disappeared into the bowels of the house, leaving the newlyweds alone with an enormous statue of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The world’s most famous Corsican had been rendered in marble. He held an orb in one hand, and a staff in the other. A sash was draped over one arm. It was the only stitch of clothing he wore.

Evie flushed bright red, and was immediately embarrassed. She’d studied art history, for crying out loud. She wrote a fifty-page paper on Michelangelo’s David in grad school. And she was married. There was no reason for her to be a shrinking violet.

She said the only thing she could think of: “What the fuck.”

Julien glanced at the sculpture, then back at her. “Oh. That. The Duke of Wellington has one, too.” He paused. “The Duke’s is bigger.”

Impossibly, her blush deepened. “Julien.”

“Or so I hear,” he continued. “I’ve never been to Apsley House. Centuries-old family feud and all that. Wellington himself seems nice enough. I had a lovely chat with him at Longchamp a few years ago.”

Evie hoped one of Julien’s dead relatives had purchased the statue. She didn’t think she could look whoever bought this in the eye, or sit across from them at the dinner table.

Read the rest at princessimperial.com

[napoleonbonaparte4ever]

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

[empirearchives]

It will always be funny to me that Napoleon was mad that Canova depicted him like this:

Like anyone else would be flattered, but he was embarrassed

Reasons Napoleon Has Complained About Artists (that I am aware of)

Lejeune: drew a shitpost about looting instead of…. y’know… stopping looting.

Canova: sculpted him naked with unbelievable abs 

Isabey: leapfrogged on him

……now I need to hunt down more stupid anecdotes. My favorite type of anecdote. 

[beautyofaphrodite]

Venus Victrix

So lately I’ve been making posts on artwork featuring Lady Aphrodite or Lady Venus (they’re often depicted the same). So far, I’ve covered two paintings titled The Birth of Venus, the ones by Botticelli and Cabanel. Today, we have a statue titled Venus Victrix by Antonio Canova. Please let me know your favorite artistic depictions of Lady Aphrodite or Venus if you’d like me to cover them!

Antonio Canova

Antonio Canova was an Italian sculptor born November 1, 1757 in the Republic of Venice, and died on October 13, 1822 in Lombardy-Venetia. He was often regarded as one of the greatest of the Neoclassical artists, and was famous for his marble statues such as Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss, The Three Graces, Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker, Venus Victrix, and George Washington.

Description of the Statue

Venus lays on a sort of bed, nude with some sort of fabric covering her bottom half. She holds an apple, alluding to the judgement of Paris. The goddess’s appearance is modeled after Pauline Bonaparte, an imperial French princess and sister to Napoleon.

About the Statue

The Venus Victrix was created from 1805-1808 out of white marble. It was commissioned by the model’s husband right after their marriage. It is now displayed in the Galleria Borghese, in Rome, Italy.

Fun Facts

- Canova was originally commissioned to paint Bonaparte fully clothed as the virgin goddess Diana, but the model objected, saying nobody would believe she’s a virgin.

-There is debate on whether or not Bonaparte actually posed nude, and she responded saying she did but it wasn’t a problem as Antonio Canova wasn’t “a real man” and it was too hot in the room to wear clothes. This could have been a way to “stir things up”, as she often liked to do

- Pauline Bonaparte was said to be related to Venus through her son, Aeneas

- The statue originally had a mechanism in the base that would rotate it so someone could see all angles of it without moving

- In 2020, a tourist broke off some of the toes by sitting on the statue while posing for a selfie

I hope you learned something, I certainly did! This is a beautiful statue, and there were some very interesting things I didn’t know. Please, if you have any artwork of Lady Aphrodite (or Venus) you would like me to cover, please let me know. Love y’all 🫶 /p

[miffy-junot]

Napoleon as Mars the peacemaker by Antonio Canova

when I was at Apsley House on Saturday I had the wonderful experience of getting to see this beautiful statue in person! It truly is magnificent, and photos cannot express the effect it has.

[lux-vitae]

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

[trashpoppaea]

what @clove-pinks​ said. Also this is worth posting here in its entirety:

(paging @thiswaycomessomethingwicked​)

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)

[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.