NAPOLEON THE MASTER OF SPIN with Sylvia Sagona

From the moment he burst onto the scene of the Revolution, the 26-year-old General Bonaparte groomed his evolving image and dictated every detail to awe-struck painters such as Ingres and David. In a time of great political instability, he understood the power of visual propaganda and projected his message through architecture, fashion, the decorative arts and engineering feats. True or false or just plain fiction, the Napoleonic legend we have inherited is the one he dictated.

Sylvia Sagona is an internationally recognised specialist on 19th century French society. She retired from the French Department at the University of Melbourne to work on historical documentaries for French and Australian television and is currently researching a book on Parisian women in the 19th century and a French documentary on the history of the restaurant in Paris.

Jacques-Louis David (1748 –1825), The Coronation of Napoleon [detail], 1805, collection of the Musée du Louvre, Paris