Summary: The Misleading Myth Of Narcissistic Napoleon Bonaparte

The Misleading Myth of Narcissistic Napoleon

When Napoleon Bonaparte (1761-1821) came to power in 1799 in France his reign relied on drawing his legitimacy from public opinion instead of a hereditary promise. Bonaparte endlessly pursued creating the perfect ‘myth’ around his name. France was struggling internally with the Revolution and externally when European powers began to join forces in the hopes of destroying France. One of Bonaparte’s most influential artists, Antoine-Jean Gros (1771-1835), illustrated Bonaparte’s prestige through propaganda in Bonaparte Visits the Plague Stricken in Jaffa (1804); the same year Bonaparte was entitled Emperor of the French (Palmer 410) (Britannica). This image shows general Bonaparte touching one of his ill Frenchmen during the Egyptian Campaign (1799). By portraying himself having a god-like appearance and an apparent connection to the rise

The light in this painting directs one’s focus to Bonaparte touching an infected Frenchman. Characters surrounding Bonaparte advise him not to touch this man, yet he does anyway. This image of Bonaparte has many parallels to a portion of the Bible in which Jesus touched an ill man to cleanse him, which showed Jesus’s concern for his people above his own health. Gros used this idea, enhancing Bonaparte as a superior, fearless creature. The light around Bonaparte creates a mystical, healing aura that all figures desire to participate in; to the right even a blind man senses Bonaparte’s goldy presence and endeavors to come into the light. In the same year the painting was commissioned, Bonaparte named himself ‘Emperor of the French,’ a title that connected to the individuals of France and implied that Bonaparte’s duty surrounded the bettering of the people (Palmer 410). Bonaparte showed that even when he was a general, he entirely devoted himself to the people’s