Jean-Léon Géröme - Napoleon in Egypt [1867-68]During the Second Empire (1852–70), Napoleon III, the

Jean-Léon Géröme - Napoleon in Egypt [1867-68]During the Second Empire (1852–70), Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte and the second emperor of France, encouraged the cult of his uncle, whose 1798 Egyptian expedition is the subject of this painting. Gérôme placed the legendary general before an exotic, Orientalist setting - the Mamluk tombs outside Cairo. The resting place of rulers who owed the rise of their dynasty to military prowess, the tombs would have been a subject of reflection for Bonaparte during his own meteoric ascent to power. Late-nineteenth-century viewers might also have recalled the domed Church of the Invalides in Paris, to which Napoleon’s remains had been brought in 1840 from St. Helena, the place of his exile and death.[Princeton University Art Museum - Oil on canvas] -- source link

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