THE NUDE NAPOLEON | Neoclassism and the Memory of War with Shane Carmody

Antonio Canova’s Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker strikes an unusual pose in the grand staircase of Apsley House. In this lecture Shane Carmody will tell the story of this heroic nude and indeed something of the place of classical nudity in the commemoration of Napoleon and Wellington.

SHANE CARMODY is Director Development at the State Library of Victoria, and holds degrees in History from the Universities of Melbourne and Toronto. Carmody has published articles on aspects of the Library’s collection and became interested in the neoclassical nude as war memorial whilst researching Sir Edgar Boehm’s St George and the Dragon on the Library forecourt.

Antonio Canova (1757-1822), Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker, 1802/1806, collection of Apsley House, London