Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker

Napoleon is represented as Mars the Peacemaker with the world in his hands surmounted by Victory. The marble is in London, the plaster scale model is in the Municipal Museum of Trieste and the bronze is in the Brera Museum in Milan. (Victory was executed by Settimo Manera 1984). The colossus was executed according to the heroic style of the Greek diadochos: Mars is standing naked with a rod in his hand and the world with victory in the other, a chlamys (a military overcoat) hangs from his shoulders and a spade near the trunk on which he rests. It is a front view. The body rests on the right leg and the left leg is moving forward with great authority and surety. This statue won public acclaim in Rome and represents Napoleon in an ideal manner. It was censured in Paris because the emperor was naked. Art critic Ennio Quirino Visconti defended the work stating that it efficiently depicted the spiritual and political qualities of Napoleon.