Coronation of Napoleon

In the vast, gilded interior of Notre-Dame, Napoleon - having just crowned himself - lifts the crown to set it on the kneeling Josephine, while the pope sits behind him reduced to a witness and the whole glittering court looks on. Jacques-Louis David choreographs hundreds of figures into a single immense pageant of imperial power. Now in the Louvre, the Coronation of Napoleon is a colossal feat of propaganda and portraiture, recording the moment the general made himself emperor and pointedly took the act of crowning into his own hands.