The crown over Joséphine

Find the crown Napoleon holds above the kneeling woman. This is Joséphine, his wife, about to be crowned empress. The gesture takes the centre of a ceremony crowded with people. Dresses, robes and architecture leave little empty space. Jacques-Louis David, a French painter who worked for Napoleon, represented the ceremony held at Notre-Dame in Paris in 1804. Napoleon was the soldier and ruler who had become emperor of the French. The canvas was painted after the event and is almost ten metres wide. Its scale gives the scene the presence of a great public occasion. The painting shows a selected moment. Napoleon had already placed his own crown on his head, and David shows him crowning Joséphine. Pope Pius VII sits behind. Notice how arms and gazes lead attention towards the central gesture. Their arrangement helps you find it among so many people. Napoleon’s mother appears among those watching from a tribune. David included her although she did not attend the ceremony. That detail reveals a painting constructed to present an image of the emperor and his family. Identifiable people and a real event form its basis, while the painter’s choices shape what we see. Look at someone near the edge of the canvas. Their posture has a different role from that of the central couple. They may watch, accompany or add solemnity to the occasion. Then return to the crown. The scene gathers all these people around an action presenting a new authority.