NAPOLEON ENTRONED WITH ALLEGORICAL FIGURES OF PEACE AND VICTORY

APPIANI, ANDREA

NAPOLEON ENTRONED WITH ALLEGORICAL FIGURES OF PEACE AND VICTORY

1806

wood, oil

38 x 46 cm

Inv.: 2102

Signature and date bottom right: Appiani 1806.

The inscription on the steps of the throne reads: MIHI SEMPER DEUS.

This picture from the Pushkin Museum can be traced back to one of the compositions painted by Appiani in the period 1801-1807 within the framework of an extensive programme entitled "Fasti di Napoleone" (Annals of Napoleon) the idea behind which had been the glorification of the French Emperor. This cycle had been designed to decorate the Hall of the Caryatids in the Palazzo Reale in Milan (destroyed in 1943).

Provenance: held in the collection of Eugénie de Beauharnais in 1814; in the collection of the Dukes of Leuchtenberg (Munich-St. Petersburg-Petrograd) 1824-1918; in the State Museums Foundation from 1918; in the Rumyantsev Museum from 1920; in the Pushkin Museum since 1924.