Napoleon As Mars The Peacemaker Essay

Napoleon as Mars the peacemaker.

Introduction

In this Essay I will analyse a sculpture: Napoleon as Mars the peacemaker.

Despite his appearance, a sculpture can say much of an historical moment, and will be helpful to understand how certain historical facts are conveyed through a favorable storytelling. Through the examination of Antonio Canova's Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker (1806), this essay explores the contradictions in Napoleon's ambitions such as the conflicts between leading aesthetic doctrines and the requirements of Napoleonic propaganda.

Napoleon as Mars the peacemaker, was commissioned in 1802, long before the French defeat at the battle of Waterloo, when Napoleon was 33 years old and First Consul of France. He summoned the most famous sculptor in the world, the Italian Antonio Canova, to Paris and chose him to create a propagandistic statue.

While Canova's prestige as an artist attracted the attention of Napoleon and his artistic

For Napoleon the beginning of ‘800 is a turning point, and in this moment he gave prove of his military capabilities but also of his propagandistic abilities. While commanding the Army of Italy, for example, Bonaparte owned two minor newspapers, the Courrier de l'Armée d'Italie and La France vue de l'Armée d'Italie. Both were used to narrate the heroic deeds of his soldiers and keep up the spirit of the troops in a foreign land.

Bonaparte began to shape a favorable public image through his careful wording and strategic use of his bulletins, dispatches, and proclamations.

In this process, he was aided by two important factors: the phenomenal growth of the popular press during the Revolution and the changing fortunes of war which, for the most part, favored Bonaparte's