Napolionic Charisma

Napoleon was almost as famous for being charismatic as he is for his short stature.

Napoleon wasn't short.
Was he charismatic?

How many people followed him for him, instead of because of the alternative option or the promises he made? How much of a factor was his charisma, actually?

I don't know, but I'd assume that most people followed for his promises and the threats posed by his opposition. After all, charisma has the most pull on the people closest to you, and writing and speeches only go so far. Napoleon could not possibly have known everyone who followed him personally: there were simply too many people. Public speeches could inspire those who hear it, but only so many people could hear any given speech, and each time someone passes on word of his charisma, passion, and whatever else Napoleon demonstrated while speaking, the actual glow of his charisma would be transfered less and less. Out of all the time he spent working with and on France, how much of that time was spent in public, densly-populated areas, and how much was away from most of the people he'd want to sway?

The World in a Painting: Lady Liberty Leading the People

Everyone recognizes the painting Lady Liberty Leading the People. Many recognize how the ideals of the french revolutions shine through it. All the same, I was curious to see what I could dig up if I properly analysied the painting.

 

Painted in France, October-December of 1830 by E. Delecroix, this was meant to be a celebration of the the successful Three Glorious Days: a revolution that took place over three days. This painting, when completed, was bought by the new king to place in his throne room, as a reminder of how he was put into power, and how his predecessor was taken out of it. However, due to the central image of a forceful, even violent woman, the image was deemed too inflamatory, and was eventually sent of to be put into storage with Delecroix's aunt. After several years, it finally went to the Louvre, where it still exists today.

This painting positively reeks of symbolism.

Marianne stands out from the painting around her as a classically painted figure in a mostly romanticly painted painting, bringing to mind the Greek statues and roman gods via pose, dress, and symbolism: Delecroix wanted Marianne to be liberty personified. She poses statically in a painting filled with movement, and she is the central and highpoint in the painting. Her dress drapes in such a way as to hang like a toga and reveal much of her bosom, trait familiar to ancient sculpture. 

She stands in the middle of a battlefield, barefoot, half-naked and unmoving, completely unworried about the surrounding mayhem: she doesn't even raise her bayonet. This may be to demonstrate that liberty has already won. Her dress and manner are not particuarly fancy, even peasant-like: if she is a goddess-figure, she is the people's figure. Her dress is yellow, a color that brings joy and happiness to mind, and her belt is red. This directs the eyes path: the eye flows from the middle of the painting to Marianne's face, where she sports rosy cheeks and a phyrigian cap. The eyes jump from there to the flag, the third tripe of which is red, before traveling down the flag pole, pausing at Marianne's belt, before leaping to the kneeling woman's head covering and belt. Marianne's belt also looks a little bit like a stream because of how it flows around and behind her, and the two tails of the ribbon meet in a cross. For these reasons, the belt might be a tribute to those who had and will die for liberty, and/or it may indicate God's favor with the war: in spite of France thoroughly annoying the Church in the 1780s, the Catholic Church had been brought back into France by 1801, and religion had always been important to many Europians, even before then. The belt is part of a triangle formed between the colors on Marianne's face, flag and belt, and that triangle both directs the vision downwards and ensures that both the flag and Mirianne's face and cap are noticed.

Marianne is wearing a phyrigian cap; an accessory indigenous to ancient Rome, the caps marked freed slaves. The French revolutionaries adopted these caps as a symbol while they worked to escape their absolute monarchy. A fairly obvious symbol, it is double-sided: it demonstrates both their goal, what will be written on their victory banner, and it shows what they think about the system they were fighting. The fact that their chosen symbol is so obviously connected with freedom and was something to be worn in the streets, the revolutionaries must have felt it was a worthy cause and battle cry that would draw people into agreement. The fact that the cap used to symbolize freedom for slaves, implies that the french revolutionaries considered themselves slaves to the government, at least when the cap was first adopted. She also carries the flag, waving in the center and at the top of the painting. The white of the flag  almost fades into the clouds in the background: this may simply be an attempt to make the red and blue more striking, or it might be another sign of God's approval.

A typical classical painting trick is to use triangles in the structure of the painting, used to draw attention to a single point. There are two main triangles formed in Lady Liberty Leading the People: one by man in top hat, the woman kneeling and the boy beside Marianne, and the other triangle formed by the boy, the man in top hat, and Lady Liberty herself.  These draw attention to  the woman kneeling and Marianne, respectively, who are connected by line of sight along Marianne's flag's pole. As mentioned above, this painting was held back and kept from display because of the inflammatory strength of Marianne. Perhaps Delecroix recognized this possibility, and painted the other woman in there to provide contrast to Marianne, and imply that normal women did not wander around on the battlefront carrying bayonets.

Another interesting idea in this peace is the existence certain inalienable rights. Several such rights are outlined in The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, including the rights to have an individual opinion and to communicate it: both of these rights are expressed by the existence of the political propaganda itself. It is interesting to note that in the thesaurus, ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom’ are synonymous, and  the Oxford-English Dictionary definition of ‘freedom’, is “The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint” (English-Oxford Dictionary). This isn't just Lady Liberty leading her people to a fight for freedom. This was a fight for their rights as well.

The foreground of the painting shows that the fighters are willing to kill and die for their rights, demonstrated by the men along the bottom of the image. Some of the men were soldier’s uniforms, and another wears only a shirt and a sock: these deaths are striking in that, unlike the art common to the era, not only is death depicted, it’s depicted in a brutally ugly and honest way, bringing home the cost of the victory. It is possible that these deaths are particularly ugly because, by 1790s, the army that this painting implies the people fought would have been made up of home-grown soldiers, normal French citizens sent off to war. Another possible reason is that by the early 1800s, most of the French were sick and tired of war and death.

Equality is idea was particularly obvious in the people surrounding Marianne: people of all ages, sexes, classes and races have come out to fight for their freedom. To Marianne’s right a little boy who appears to be lower-middle class, eager to fight the enemy with pistols drawn and blazing. Before her kneels a partially-obscured woman, who appears to be asking or begging for something from her. Marianne, a female in herself, bears a bayonet with apparent comfort, and the ease of long use. Meanwhile, at Marianne’s left stand two easily distinguishable men: an upper-class merchant who wears a black jacket, tie and top hat while he holds his rifle cocked, and a man with dark skin, wearing beret and pistols. This man could quite easily be someone's heir due to France's unique inheritance traditions. If a child is born of a Caucasian man and his slave, then the child was often taken in by the father, fed, clothed, sent to school, taken care of, and allowed to inherit.

The background is hazy, with just enough detail to set the painting in France: the buildings themselves are from all over France, and were merely shown together in this image: this may be, again, to clarify that the setting is in France, and it may be to imply that the revolution is happening everywhere throughout France. The corners of the painting are darkened with approaching night and the smoke that obscures the sky suggests that the battle was just recently fought, setting the mood and adding a touch of realism. There is a hazy shadow behind the hoard of people to Marianne's left, implying the untold multitudes who were willing to fight and die for their freedom.

What do you think? Any other symbols that strike you?