Monday, July 30, 2012

Napoleon exhibition: a Miss Soft Crab summary (AM)

I went to see the Napoleon exhibition at the NGV on the weekend.
Revolution!
Military things!
France!
It was very enjoyable actually. You should all go. But in case you don't make it, here are some of my favourite things about it, and some discoveries I made.

Young Napoleon was quite handsome! 
Before seeing the exhibition, I thought Napoleon was kind of boring looking, with a bent towards the smug, and obviously a very short man. Now I know that was only how he looked in the later years. As a young man, he was a total dish. See for yourselves, readers.


Nothing wrong with that, am I right? Men doing hoist enough flags these days if you ask me, nor look over their shoulders while wearing a sash.
Also, apparently he was 5 foot 6 inches tall. The same height as me! That's not that short people, give him a break.


Bees!
You know how most kings and the like favour symbols like eagles and lions to make them look powerful and what not? Well, perhaps the most endearing thing about Napoleon was that in addition to having the image of an eagle slapped all over his paraphernalia, he also had a bee as his special emperor symbol. Isn't that adorable? I think that's so adorable! Apparently he liked bees.

This is a bronze bee from the NB's coronation celebrations. CUTE!

The bit where I thought Napoleon's horse was called David!
Miss Soft Crab is a big fan of Davids. We love them in fact.  While looking at this picture, I noticed that it says David on Napoleon's horse's leather strappy thing, the one that is making a horizontal line in this picture.


You can't see it here, but trust me, it's there. When I noticed this,  I basically decided I loved Napoleon. Not only is he handsome and a bee fan, but he has a horse named David. Who cares that he made himself emperor and made members of his family Kings and Queens in a whole bunch of other places. He has a horse called David and that makes him OK by me.

Turns out the person who painted he portrait was called Jean-Louis David, and the horsie's name is unknown.

Oh well.

I liked lots of other things but these ones spring to mind. You guys should go!

2 comments:

  1. Hahaha. You made a little mistake who made my day!
    I'm pretty sure the painter wasn't called Jean-Louis David but JACQUES-Louis David (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques-Louis_David). I am not sure if Jean-Louis David is well known in Australia but he's actually a famous hairdresser (http://www.jeanlouisdavid.us/?lang=en) who was born a couple of years after Napoléon's death. I'm sure some hairdressers also paint really well though...but not him!

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  2. * a mistake WHICH made my day, sorry

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