Bonaparte visitant les pestiférés de Jaffa, 1804, oil on canvas, 5320mm × 7200mm, Louvre, Paris
Dictator visits the severely afflicted, affecting Christ-like stature.
This is a huge canvas (17 feet high and 23 feet wide) divided in three, portraying the conquering hero as a cross between Christ and Apollo, visiting his afflicted troops in Egypt stricken with the deadly disease.
In reality, he was leaving Egypt in defeat, having order the patients’/prisoners’ death.
Such is the power of great art that the portrait nonetheless sticks.
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