Simon Schama's thesis:
The power of persuading people does not have to be violent. Jacques-Louis David was able to pass along deep messages to the people of France through his artwork. Although many people (especially from the Third Estate) could not read, they could still understand what David was portraying through his paintings.
Jacques-Louis David depicts the consecration of Napoleon, and when he crowned his wife Josephine. Unlike other rulers, Napoleon crowned himself. In the past, the pope had the honors of crowning the new ruler, symbolizing the Catholic church's importance in society. It held the power to crown the new ruler. However, Napoleon stood in front of the pope, and simply crowned himself. Before the revolution, the Church played an important role in society, and held a certain amount of power. Now, Napoleon took away the power that they had, making him the one and only ruler of France.
The image above depicted Napoleon crowning his wife, rather than himself, so that he was not to be represented unbelievably selfish to all of France. All eyes but one are on him and the crown, yet again depicting his absolute power. Josephine is looking at the Emperor's feet. Although she is being crowned Empress, Josephine is kneeling to Napoleon, portraying that he has much more power. In this painting, Napoleon and his wife are the only people wearing fur, representing that they are extremely rich.
The crown that Napoleon is wearing resembles the crown that Caesar wore, and he also appears to be wearing some sort of toga. Caesar was an extremely successful absolute ruler, so the fact that he is wearing this depicts the idea that he wishes to be as successful as Caesar.
Napoleon, his wife, and the clergy seem to be the people with the most light. This was done so that the people of France could see that the clergy was present, and was behind the Emperor. When taking a closer look at Napoleon's red velvet attire, a pattern of bees is represented in gold. From afar, the bees resemble a fleure de lis, the old king's symbol representing the absolute monarchy. Bees were the very first emblem of France, back during the Merovingian dynasty. One reason Napoleon chose the bees could be because he wanted to start a new beginning of France with a new absolute monarchy.
Through all of the symbols and signs in this painting by David, the people could grasp that Napoleon, their new Emperor, was going to be a great ruler.
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