IL NUDO EROICO -- Napoleone Bonaparte como Marte

Speranza

Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker 1803-09 Bronze, height 325 cm Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

In 1802 Canova traveled to Parigi, to work on a portrait bust of Napoleone. The plan to make a statue of the First Consul led to a many difficulties. Napoleone expected to be shown in the uniform of a French general, while Canova firmly rejected this. He wanted a statue in heroic nudity showing the ruler as the Roman god of War, MARTE, who brings peace by his deeds. However, Napoleone appreciated that the public representation of modern power could not be done with larger-than-life heroic nudity of the classical hero. Nudity as an attribute could not be used anymore. The complete marble sculpture reached Paris only in 1811, but it was not installed. The bronze version, ordered by the Viceroy of Napoleonic Italy for the Foro Napoleonico in Milano, likewise failed to make it to installation. When the huge statue was finally cast in 1812, it landed in the courtyard of the Milan Senate, then it was stored in the Museo di Brera.