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  Home>Plan Your Visit>Tours, Guides, and Maps>Self-Guided Tours>Audio Stop 217
      

      
      Search Audio Stop 217 Select LanguageEnglishChineseKoreanSpanishJapanese
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 A man with pale peach skin and dark hair wears a military uniform and stands in front of a desk in this vertical portrait painting. He nearly fills the composition so seems close to us, and he looks directly at us. His body is angled slightly to our left and he tucks his right hand, on our left, flat against his chest between the buttons of his jacket. His navy-blue waistcoat is white along the front where it is fastened with brass buttons along his chest. The jacket has red cuffs, gold epaulets on the shoulders, and three medals affixed to the chest. White britches end just below the knee, and white stockings covering his calves are wrinkled at the ankle above black shoes with brass buckles. A candle burns low in a lamp on an ornately carved and gilded desk behind the man. Books and papers are piled on the desk to our right. More papers and a thin sword rest on a chair in front of the desk to our right. The chair is also carved and gilded, and is upholstered with scarlet-red fabric decorated with gold bees. The legs of the chair push back the forest-green carpet underfoot. A tall clock stands on the wall opposite us and reads 4:13. A few capital letters are written on a scroll of paper on the chair, “COD.” The artist’s name is also written as if printed on a scroll of paper on the floor behind the desk to our left: “LVD.CI.DAVID OPVS 1812.”
 Jacques-Louis David *The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries*, 1812 El curador adjunto de pintura francesa Aaron Wile examina la creación de un mito en el retrato de Napoleón de Jacques-Louis David.
 Transcripción de audioAARON WILE: 
Lo que me fascina de este cuadro es que ofrece una visión distintiva y moderna de la autoridad política. Soy Aaron Wile, curador adjunto del Departamento de Pintura Francesa.  
NARRADOR: 
Jacques-Louis David retrata aquí al emperador Napoleón en su estudio con su característica pose de la mano en el chaleco.
AARON WILE: 
El reloj nos dice que son las 4:13 de la mañana, y vemos que él ha trabajado toda la noche. Las velas casi están derretidas por completo, su cabello está desarreglado, sus puños, desabotonados. Podemos ver en el gran trozo de papel enrollado sobre su escritorio que ha estado trabajando en su famoso logro legislativo, el Código Napoleónico, con el que entregó a Francia posrevolucionaria su primer conjunto coherente de leyes. David presenta a Napoleón, quien se pone de pie para dejar su trabajo, y está a punto de ceñirse la espada y partir a inspeccionar a las tropas. 
NARRADOR:
Hay un famoso libro bajo el escritorio con la crónica de los logros de Alejandro el Grande y Julio César. 
AARON WILE: 
Esto enviaba un claro mensaje de que los logros de Napoleón igualaban o superaban los de Grecia y Roma.  
En el retrato, con su realismo casi alucinatorio, cada detalle, cada textura se representa en forma minuciosa, nos impacta con la fuerza de la verdad. Se siente como un registro documental, aunque en verdad es una ficción, una mentira. Hay varios momentos y objetos característicos de su historia más amplia aglomerados en esta sola imagen. De este modo, el cuadro participa en forma activa en la creación del mito. Creo que nos toca mirar más de cerca y entender cómo se construyen los mitos y cómo se mantiene la legitimidad política de alguien como Napoleón. Visita guiada del Edificio Oeste: Selección destacada
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