REGICIDE

From The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

The young Bonaparte in Brienne (Paris military School) * -    Jacques Marie Gaston Onfroy de Bréville ‘JOB’

French, 1858-1931

Illustration

Woman’s Hands   -   Ludovic Alleaume ,1905-10.

French,1859-1941

Snow falling on the Krug Memorial Hans Schuler, sculptor

Jean de Boulogne (1529 - 1608) Ercole e il centauro Nesso (1598). Florence.    

“You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame; how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?”      

(Napoleon as First Consul of France)

First, we have to acknowledge the reckless manner in which Napoleon’s character is treated. He is painted as either having a psychological disorder or as being the genocidal precursor to Hitler. Neither is accurate. Napoleon was not all that different from the other sovereigns and generals of Europe in his ruthlessness. And what goes most frequently ignored are his progressive and herculean achievements in the political sphere (possibly because his military achievements were just that staggering).

Napoleon however, was not born into money. He did not emerge as a natural genius and his early life is littered with recurring failures (and thoughts of suicide). He invokes obsession – be it in the form of praise or vitriolic condemnation – because he quite literally rose from nothing into a titan of history. His life is meticulously studied for that reason. We, in some capacity, want to do that ourselves.