“Men are only as great as the monuments they leave behind,” he said.

By 1804 when Napoleon proclaimed France an empire and himself emperor, his taste shifted from Republican Rome to imperial Rome. He spun his Egyptian Campaign into a cultural and intellectual victory, inspiring a craze of Egyptomania. He was most interested in Rome’s antiquities – packing up masterpieces from the Vatican like the Laocoön and Apollo Belvedere. As a young general leading the Italy Campaign in 1796, Napoleon demanded specific artworks and quantities in his peace treaties. But he recognized the powerful propaganda value of great art and architecture. Unlike Catherine, Napoleon was not a connoisseur. The self-taught tsarina became a passionate, hands-on collector and patroness of neoclassical art and architecture.

Early in her reign, after Russia defeated the Ottomans, she ordered statues and paintings to glorify her victories. Catherine was a bibliophile with a large personal library and she especially prized books on art and architecture. S.J: Both Catherine the Great and Napoleon’s use of art evolved with changing political circumstances. Once each of these leaders started noticing art in the early stages of their political careers, did they consciously plan future acquisitions? Later, he has himself portrayed as Caesar in a Roman toga and laurel wreath. Before seizing power, Napoleon enhanced his heroic reputation by minting medals of himself and his victories. Catherine had herself depicted as Russia’s enlightened, cultured ruler. From the start, both rulers carefully controlled their iconography. It was part of his strategy to turn Paris into the new Rome, Europe’s cultural capital. Napoleon, a Corsican-born military hero who replaced the Directory regime with the Consulate and later established the First Empire, stole great masterpieces of art for the Louvre with each of his victories. Petersburg (the foundation of today’s Hermitage Museum) both to legitimize herself as tsarina and help transform Russia’s image. She began amassing a world-class art collection for St. After deposing her husband, Catherine found herself on shaky ground because she was German. Both were foreigners who seized power in coup d’états and used art to legitimize their reigns.

S.J: Interestingly, both Catherine the Great and Napoleon’s interest in art developed as adults in parallel with their soaring political ambitions.

MEB: What motivated each of these extraordinary figures to pursue art?ĭid they have exhibited curiosity in their youth? Photography by Meb3 © All Rights Reserved. The Hermitage version of the Raphael Loggia.

The Empress of Art by Susan Jaques