The paintings of Napoleon, supposedly, were “painted according to Napoleon’s own wishes and not those of David.” 96 This suggests that this is not how David wanted to paint him and perhaps not how he would presen t a ‘hero.’ However, “when David proposed to paint him sword in hand, Napoleon… replied that battles were no longer won with the sword and that he wished to be painted ‘calm, on a fiery horse.’” 97 This shows how the battles were seen as being won by people of higher status and the aristocrats, rather than the poorer masses who fought to the death. This can further be seen by the clothing Napoleon is wearing in the painting, which is not something that would be worn to war. As well as the fact that his sword is not easily visible, and fairly small, and not in his hand ready to fight, but still attached by his leg. These representations of wars are therefore focused on the individual; however, war is a collective event and not won by a single person. This idea also follows on from Homer’s works, as the battles he described were also often one-on-one. David therefore, similarly to Homer, is interested in the hero as an individual, and the descriptions of their battles rather than the mass war which is more likely to have occurred. The individualism of war which is presented in Homer and David’s work, makes it not a true representation of war. Just as with David’s artistic depictions, Homer’s “main narrative focuses on individuals” and usually “one -to-one combat. ” 98 This makes the descriptions not only false representations, but unrealistic, as war would not have occurred in this way during the period. As David shows with his images of Napoleon, the depictions in art and literature also make the wars “aristocratic combat” where “the common man is almost invisible.” 99 R.B. Rutherford argues that this makes the warfare 96 Anita Brookner, Jacques-Louis David (London: Chatto & Windus Ltd, 1980), p. 147 97 Brookner, Jacques-Louis David, p. 147 98 R.B. Rutherford, Greece & Rome: New Surveys in the Classics No.26: Homer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 37 99 Rutherford, Greece & Rome, p. 37
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