— met Antonio Canova: Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker (1802); Apsley House, London.

NAPOLEON IN THE NUDE
This colossal sculpture might not be everybody’s taste, but the story behind it is most intriguing. How did a statue of a naked French emperor made by an Italian sculptor end up in the staircase of a British general?
In 1802, Napoleon decided he wanted to have a full-length sculpture made by Antonio Canova (1757-1822) and sent him a highly flattering invitation. Both men were
extremely celebrated at that time; the first was at the height of his power, the latter was generally considered to be the most talented sculptor of the Western world.
But Canova was not very enthusiastic about this honorable commission. He regarded the French, who had occupied his hometown Venice with great violence, as barbarians and resented Napoleon for looting Italian art treasures and dragging them to Paris. It was only through the mediation of several dignitaries, including Pope Pius VII, that Canova eventually felt forced to oblige.
He proposed to depict Napoleon as a heroic nude: Mars the Peacemaker. Napoleon initially refused - he insisted to be portrayed in his regimental uniform - but he must also have felt flattered to be depicted as a pacifying war god and ultimately he trusted on the insight of the artist.
The huge statue arrived in Paris no earlier than 1811. When Napoleon first saw it, he was so shocked that he immediately ordered it to be hidden from the public. Napoleon’s comment that the statue was ‘trop athlétique’ suggests that his physical appearance may have played a role. While the concept of depicting the Little General as a giant of nearly three and half meters was already fairly grotesque in 1802, he had become quite corpulent since then.
After Napoleon’s defeat in The Battle of Waterloo (1815), by an alliance of armies under the command of the Duke of Wellington, the moment had come for the restitution of Napoleon’s looted art and the hidden Mars-statue resurfaced. It was presented as a gift to the Duke. ‘The Victor of Waterloo’ proudly showed his new acquisition in the stairwell of his London residence, Apsley House.
This prominent place for the statue of his arch enemy is often interpreted as a form of schadenfreude, but the opposite is true. Wellington had a tremendous respect for him. When asked whom he considered the greatest general of the age, he answered: 'In this age, in past ages, in any age, Napoleon'.
(text: Maarten Levendig)

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