Painted by David from 1805 to 1808, The Coronation of Napoleon was meant to immortalize 2 December 1804, that day in Notre Dame when the French Emperor was consecrated by the pope and placed the crown upon his own head. While David’s large-scale painting possesses all the life and truth of a faithful testimony, it was in fact an example of Napoleon’s brilliant use of the image to establish political power right from the Italian campaign.

Filled with details, this book plunges readers into a “portrait-painting” of 146 faces, like an invitation from Napoleon, whose words upon seeing it were: “This is not a painting, one walks in this picture!”