All language subtitles for Napoleon.In.The.Name.Of.Art.

JEREMY IRONS: On 26 May 1805,
this square was jam-packed.

The bells were ringing out
across the city.

(BELLS CHIME)

And it would have been difficult
to elbow your way

through the yelling crowds
as they jostled and shoved.

(CHORAL MUSIC PLAYS)

Then, Napoleon arrived

on a four poster bed,
carried aloft by clerics.

He entered here,
into the Duomo, Cathedral of Milan.

The Emperor of France now desired
to be the King of Italy, too.

Now, this was the robe worn
by Napoleon that day.

And its train was held
by General Berthier,

one of Napoleon's most trusted
and courageous of officers.

Among the regalia he brought with him
is his sceptre,

the symbol of absolute power...

..but also something that was one
of his favourites,

The Hand of Justice,
which stood for law.

Now, he was particularly fond
of this because his civil code

has established the rules
of family life,

individuals and commerce

that shaped French society
as we know it today.

He was a child of the Revolution

and the civil progress
it brought about.

So, now, we were all equal
before the law.

But most importantly,
the crown worn that day.

Now this is an iron crown
that has already graced the heads

of the Lombard Kings,

and it's regarded as sacred

and is said to contain one
of the nails

from Christ's crucifixion.

After Jesus Christ, Napoleon
is the most famous man in history.

Over 170,000 books
have been written about him.

But how was it that such
an unlikely little lad

became such a successful
and powerful icon?

An example for today's statesmen
and even corporate managers.

A model for future strategists
and communicators.

In Corsica,

he'd been a precocious,
lonely and irksome child,

short and with a large head,

often getting into fights,
which he usually lost.

As a young soldier in France,
his poor command of the language

didn't endear him to his colleagues,

and even the woman he gave his heart
to was unable to return his passion.

Not much of a recipe for success,
you'd think.

And yet, he succeeded,
perhaps as much, if not more,

than any man in history.

And even when it was all over
for him, he spent his days

in an awesome
and uncompromising solitude.

Napoleon, a brilliant
military leader,

but also a great social organiser
and motivator,

a man with the vision
of a national unity,

a creator of dreams,
nourished on cultural energy,

and the seductive power of art.

Art that was his passion,
that he financed,

and lest it be forgotten, looted
from the countries he conquered.

26 May 1805 was a Sunday.

Napoleon was just 36 when he stepped
inside this cathedral.

The ceremony was a majestic affair.

Original music had been composed
for the occasion.

Four orchestras
accompanied the coronation.

A specially-composed Te Deum
was played for the first

and last time, since the score,
for more than 200 years,

was presumed lost.

# Dun-dun, dun-dun-dun

# Dun-dun, dun-dun-dun... #

To understand Napoleon,

what better place to begin
than Milan and the Braidense Library?

An exceptional work
is conserved here -

La Description De L'Egypte,

23 massive volumes,
the largest of them

measuring a metre and a half.

A publishing venture that lasted
over a decade.

They reveal a little-known
characteristic of Napoleon

that is fundamental
to our understanding of the man -

his obsession with books,
science and art,

an obsession that he'd carried
from his youth.

So, when his thoughts first turned
to a military expedition in Egypt,

he decided to invite 167 savants
to join his army.

Scholars, scientists, chemists,
engineers, historians, architects,

archaeologists and artists -

the country's academy-educated
cultural elite.

They set off alongside illiterate
soldiers whose knowledge stretched

to little more than weaponry.

Never before, a military expedition
seen professors lined side by side

with fighting men.

Yet, despite all the difficulties,
it was an opportunity

to widen cultural horizons.

Everyone wanted to travel to Egypt
alongside the Napoleonic Army.

One of the savants was Gaspard Monge,

mathematician,
the inventor of descriptive geometry

and one of the expedition's
older members.

It's reported
that before his departure,

he had a huge argument with his wife,
who told him,

"You're too old
for such adventures."

Well, during the campaign in Italy,

Monge was the man who carried away
some Arabic typefaces

from a palazzo of the Roman Curia,

which were later drawn upon
to make proclamations in Egypt.

Imagine, if you will,

280 ships carrying 54,000 sailors
and soldiers...

..arriving in the baking-hot
Egyptian port of Alexandria

on July 1 1798.

Napoleon chose to land in the city
founded by Alexander the Great,

whose magnificent library
had been the ancient world's largest

until its demise, half way through
the 7th century, AD.

MAN:

On the Giza Plateau, Napoleon made
one of his most celebrated orations.

"Soldiers, from the heights
of these pyramids,

"40 centuries look down upon you."

The French overran the Mamluk troops
with ease, and while the fighting

raged all around them,
the 167 savants sheltered

in an infantry square.

The moment the battle was over,
the explorations began.

(CHEERING)

Down the Nile, travelled the savants,

as far as Thebes and Luxor.

The most important discovery
came about by chance in the winter

of the following year.

During excavations in a place
in the Delta

called Rashid or Rosetta.

A French officer stumbled
upon a dark stone covered

by inscriptions
in different languages.

It was to be the stone that allowed
Jean-Francois Champollion

to decipher hieroglyphic script
in 1822.

The key to unlock a long lost world
had been found.

European culture would change
forever.

By the end of the 19th century,

trips to the Nile were all the rage,

and filmmakers,
like the Lumiere brothers,

were not far behind.

Egypt, after Napoleon, would
never be the same.

In reality, Napoleon's expedition
had turned into a disaster.

The English Navy sank
the entire French fleet

at the Battle of the Nile
and overcame the French army on land.

Napoleon escaped to Paris.

But in the annals of history,

the discovery of this
ancient Egyptian civilisation

and its monuments transformed
the military catastrophe

into an archaeological
and historical triumph.

Napoleon later wrote,

"The months I spent in Egypt
were the happiest of my life

"because they were incomparably rich
in fervour of idealism."

Look at this picture.

During that Middle Eastern campaign,
Napoleon had found himself

in Jaffa, Palestine, with his army
stricken by the plague.

A few years later, he would ask
the painter Antoine-Jean Gros

to depict that episode.

And for the first time, perhaps,
we see a modern myth in the making,

the magical power of a great leader,
who doesn't fear to touch

the suppurating sores
of an infected victim.

LICIA SIRCH:

(PIANO PLAYS)

"Once upon a time in Paris,
there lived a happy man.

"He was an old man by the name
of Vivant Denon."

Now, these are the opening words
of a book written by Anatole France

at the end of the 19th century.

That man, Denon, was with Napoleon
in Egypt, and would become the first

director of the Louvre Museum.

Napoleon was just six years old
when Denon made these sketches.

He'd gone to visit the father
of the Enlightenment, Voltaire,

then, 81 years of age.

He depicted him
with his night cap on,

his decrepit-looking face resembling
that of a monkey.

A major scandal ensued.

Denon was a multitalented aristocrat,
witty and well-read,

an artist, writer and libertine.

During the years of the Revolution,
he would have ended up

on the guillotine had it not been
for his undisputed charm.

The French were scandalised

when he published a series
of erotic drawings,

but not the young general,
Napoleon Bonaparte.

They met in 1798, at a party held
by the aristocrat Talleyrand,

French Foreign Minister
during the Revolution,

another chameleon-like character

who was able to adapt
to each regime change.

MAN:

So, it was with that glass
of lemonade, that Vivant Denon

became Napoleon's go-to man
in the world of art.

The recently-concluded
Italian campaign demonstrated

how strategically important
art had become as a weapon

in his quest for power.

Military operations on the peninsula
had been a blinding success,

a year of battles
that had given birth to the myth

of the invincible general.

Napoleon had triumphed
with a poorly equipped army,

transforming a minor strategic front
into the heart

of Europe's battlefield.

Gros depicts Napoleon at the head
of his army in Arcole.

Philippoteaux portrays him
in Rivoli

against a backdrop
of majestic mountains.

Francois Lejeune captures him
in command

of the decisive battle of Lodi.

Napoleon set in motion a momentous
process of spoilation and pillage,

removing sculptures and paintings
from churches, palazzi and museums

the length and breadth
of the peninsula.

For Napoleon,

taking on the French
revolutionary principles,

art would no longer be the property
of the Church or the nobility,

but of the state,
and available to everyone.

Far from being simply propaganda,
art stood at the heart

of his complex, forward-looking
power strategy, which involved

both the violence of war,
as well as the influence of culture.

WOMAN:

"Everything of beauty in Italy
shall be ours,"

said the young general.

No sooner said than done.

The Napoleonic spoils of war

are widely accepted
to be the greatest relocation

of artworks in history.

48 hours before leaving
for the Italian campaign,

Napoleon had married
Josephine de Beauharnais,

a Creole born in Martinique,

and the daughter of a wealthy
plantation owner.

It was said she was ignorant

and arrived in Paris
with broken and black teeth.

Nonetheless, everyone agreed
she was irresistible.

Six years older than Napoleon,

she became his greatest passion.

LUIGI MASCILLI MIGLIORINI:

ALBERTO ANTONIO BANTI:

From the front,

he wrote to Josephine.

"Adieu, woman, torment, joy,

"hope and love of my life,

"whom I love, whom I fear,

"who inspires my tender sentiments,

"drawing me towards nature

"and my impetuous emotions.

"Volcanic like the thunderstorm.

"On awakening, I am filled with you.

"Your portrait, and the memory of
last night's intoxicating pleasures

"allow my senses no rest.

"Sweet, matchless Josephine,

"what a strange effect
you have on my heart.

"Are you angry? Are you sad?

"My heart is broken with grief.

"And there is no repose
for your friend."

(OPERATIC SINGER VOCALISES)

LICIA SIRCH:

While in Italy, Napoleon begged
Josephine to join him in Milan,

where he was planning his first
campaign to relieve the peninsula

of some of its greatest art.

Titian's The Crowning Of Thorns
was removed from Milan's

Santa Maria delle Grazie church.

Christ's twisting body,
the geometric violence

of his tormentors
and the piercing colours signposted

a turning point
in the Veneto master's canon -

the bursting forth of Mannerism.

This is what made the painting
noteworthy, and the French

were not blind to its importance.

Artworks as war reparations.

It was with this formula
that Napoleon had 20 paintings sent

to France from Parma on 9 May 1796.

In an effort to retain
the most precious of them,

Correggio's Madonna Of St Jerome,

Duke Ferdinand I offered the emperor

a million francs for it to remain.

The offer was refused, and it is said
the duke never again set foot

in the room where the painting
had hung.

With the arrival of the French army,

Venice lost the independence
it had enjoyed for 1,200 years.

The Republic, which had defeated
the Ottoman Empire at Lepanto,

was simply wiped out.

Following the peace treaty
with Venice, 500 manuscripts

and 18 paintings were handed over.

Among these was The Wedding At Cana
by Veronese.

And a 17th-century French critic

called it
"the triumph of painting itself."

Louis XIV had actually tried
to buy it.

But the reason that this painting
is so...

..amazing is because of Veronese's
very loose handling

of brilliant colour.

Cezanne also copied figures
of this painting,

and Van Gogh writes about it
in a letter to his brother.

(LICIA SIRCH HUMS MELODY)

(HORN BEGINS TO PLAY)

LICIA SIRCH:

(SOPRANO SINGS)

Napoleon loved music.

He promoted the production
of new operas and was completely

smitten by the La Scala opera diva
Giuseppina Grassini.

She later recalled that he was
a hurried and distracted lover.

But who was this young man
who took up arms while falling

so readily into the arms
of beautiful women?

The man who both seduced and
frightened Europe in equal measure -

what were his origins?

He was born on 15 August 1769
in Ajaccio, Corsica,

and raised there
till, at the age of nine,

he was dispatched
to the Brienne Military Academy

in France.

ERNESTO FERRERO:

He was the second of eight children
of his mother, Letizia Ramolino,

an attractive and determined woman.

He would later say it was to her
that he owed all his success.

At home, Corsican was spoken,
a dialect similar to Genoese,

and at school, he studied Italian.

When young Napoleon was finally
admitted to Brienne,

with a scholarship
for impoverished nobles,

life was immediately challenging.

WOMAN:

(BELLS CHIME)

It was in this period
that Napoleon acquired discipline,

strategic intelligence
and physical courage.

He was a fine horseman, staying
in the saddle till he dropped.

He kept to himself, buried in books
and developing an omnivorous thirst

for knowledge, which would hold him
in good stead in the future.

MAN: Napoleon, one of the things...

We have it on his own account.
He says this himself.

He loves power.
He says, "I play it like a violin."

He literally says that.

Perhaps interestingly,
a second son.

So, you know,
there's the interest...

The first son inherits.

The second son has to make his way
in the world.

Napoleon is obsessed with the idea
of being in control,

and that drives everything he does.

Clearly,
Napoleon was an ambitious young man,

as we see from his identification
with Hannibal,

and more especially Julius Caesar.

At 20 years of age, he would spend
his nights reading De Bello Gallico

while, in the streets outside,
the French Revolution raged.

LUIGI MASCILLI MIGLIORINI:

For a man who would be Caesar,

the city of dreams could
be none other than Rome,

a place with which to identify,
and then a place to plunder.

The Treaty of Tolentino,
signed on 29 February 1797,

imposed on the papacy
the handing over of 500 manuscripts

and 100 works of art.

Among these, were some
of the greatest masterpieces

of classical art conserved
in the Vatican museums,

like the Belvedere Apollo

and the statue
of Laocoon And His Sons.

There were even plans to dismantle

the Trajan Column
and take that to Paris.

At the foot of the statue
of Pasqino, where the Romans

traditionally leave amusing messages
against the government,

someone has written,
"Are the French thieves?"

Not all of them,

but Bonaparte and his friends,
certainly.

The Capitoline Museums were hit hard.

The gallery of statues,
the first public museum in the world,

had been inaugurated
only 70 years before.

A treasure house,
full of marble gods and emperors.

Exemplary works
from a classical world

that, once they had been transported
across the Alps, would turn Paris

into a new Athens or a new Rome.

The carts were piled high
with masterpieces,

including the Capitoline Venus,

a variation on the statue
of Aphrodite,

created by Praxiteles
in the 4th century, BC,

for the goddess's sanctuary
in Cnidos.

The Dying Gaul also took its leave
of the museum.

It was a Roman copy of several
Hellenistic sculptures celebrating

the victory of Attalus I of Pergamon
over the Galatians,

the Celtic people of Asia Minor,

as the warrior's moustache suggests.

One work from the Capitoline Museums
symbolised the transition

from ancient Graeco-Roman liberty

to the liberte
of the French Revolution.

Transported to Paris in 1797,
it was an emblem of tyrannicide

and Republican virtues.

The Capitoline Brutus,

the bronze bust
with eyes of glass paste and ivory.

It is traditionally identified
with Marco Junius Brutus,

who ended the despotic reign
of the Tarquins

and founded the Roman Republic.

Hardly a hostage of war
for the French, then.

More a moral father.

His resting place should
be none other...

..than the Louvre.

MAN:

In later life,

Napoleon saw the Louvre
as his crowning achievement.

Le Musee Napoleon,
as it was called at the time,

was the reflection of his grandeur,

the gathering place for all the works
he'd requisitioned throughout Europe

for his second wedding
to Marie Louise of Austria.

These galleries were chosen
as the backdrop to the celebrations.

But the Louvre was more
than a wedding venue.

It was the cornerstone
of Napoleon's cultural policy.

SALVATORE SETTIS:

Napoleon had appointed his old friend
from the Egyptian campaign

as director of the Louvre,
Vivant Denon.

A wise choice.

Denon would be remembered
as the first modern museum director.

The huge galleries were no longer
storerooms for war booty,

but rather a well-organised
encyclopaedia of artistic beauty

from all ages.

A universal museum.

The poet Holderlin claimed
that he had got to know Greece

at the Louvre without ever
setting foot in Athens.

Everything was to be found there,
all styles and periods,

none of the great masters forgotten,

the works arranged
in chronological order to facilitate

understanding by school
and affiliation.

Art had become a marvellous
visual story,

open to comparisons,
cross-references and criticism.

The exhibiting criteria adopted
by Denon for paintings were based

on the idea of absolute beauty,
as laid down by Vasari.

At its centre
were the Italian Renaissance

and the Classicism of Raphael,

including his successors,

like Guido Reni
and Annibale Carracci.

The subject of war spoils
and their return

to their country of origin
is a thorny issue...

..dividing critics and public alike.

The Louvre was the first museum
to be open to all,

art that belonged to everyone.

And despite the restitution
of some of Napoleon's collection,

it has survived as a template...

..for all museums of today.

There's no doubt
that the French Revolution

was a bloodthirsty affair,

even though it was motivated
by the drive

for a more egalitarian society.

Napoleon accepted
these contradictions

and made them his own.

But once in power,

after the coup d'etat
of 18th Brumaire,

he put a stop
to the Revolution's violence.

From then on, no one would
be guillotined for their opinions,

and indeed, the economy benefited
as tranquillity returned.

School reform
and the Napoleonic Code,

launched in 1804, served
as the foundations for a new society,

based on merit and not blue blood

Armed with their individual worths,

now anyone could succeed in life
if they wanted.

LUIGI MASCILLI MIGLIORINI:

A different world entirely
from that of the 'ancien' regime.

This was the reign
of the hardworking bourgeoisie.

And Napoleon worked harder
than anyone,

an unbridled energy,
from whose notice nothing escaped.

ERNESTO FERRERO:

PETER HICKS: Napoleon
is extremely charming.

He's extraordinarily fascinating
to people who are talking to him.

He's very, very short.

He always says precisely no more
than is necessary -

just to the point.

When he walked into the room,
you kind of look at him.

When he became emperor in Notre Dame
on 2 December 1804,

he had all of Paris in his thrall.

The church was crammed with guests,
mostly military, since dawn.

Just before the start,

Napoleon bent down to his brother
Giuseppe and said,

"If only Father could see us now."

Then, the coup de theatre -

instead of waiting for Pope Pius VII
to crown him,

he crowned himself.

One of the most celebrated
gestures in history.

Never again would he bow down
before the power of the Church,

not even for reasons of protocol.

A memorable moment that survives
only in a preparatory sketch

for the work David was commissioned
to paint to celebrate the event.

Napoleon wanted his greatness
to shine through, not his arrogance.

And in the gigantic painting,
now to be found in the Louvre,

David complies with this request
to portray him crowning Josephine.

One thing Napoleon knew
was how to play the crowd.

Today, we talk about mass psychology,

and that turned him
into a formidable manipulator

of the collective imagination.

He knew how to diversify
communication.

If paintings spoke to intellectuals
and artists,

then simple illustrations
of the Epinal prints

were for the people.

"We must speak to the eyes,"
said Napoleon.

And that's why he supported artists
who would nourish the cult

surrounding his image.

Jacques-Louis David, the painter
of the revolutionary martyrs,

was the chosen one.

Copy after copy of his paintings
left the studio

precisely
because of their propaganda value.

One of the first portraits
of the great man,

Napoleon Crossing The Alps
was reproduced on thousands of vases,

pendulum clocks, jigsaws
and postage stamps.

CHANTAL PREVOT:

But it was Ingres who painted
the portrait of him seated

on his imperial throne in 1806.

An image of timeless power,
sacred and solemn.

MAN:

(REPORTER SPEAKS ITALIAN)

Benito Mussolini called Napoleon
the Italian on the French throne,

declaring him to be the link
between Julius Caesar and himself.

A leader who works untiringly,
just like his people.

As Napoleon would do,

Mussolini left the lights on
in his office

as a sign of never-ending activity.

And when he was told
of his appointment

as Head of Government, Mussolini,
likewise,

turned to his brother Arnaldo,
and said.

"If only father was here."

Fathers - men
that can never be conquered.

PETER HICKS: Mussolini actually did,
in fact, write a play

about the 100 days.

So, we know specifically
that Mussolini

is very interested in Napoleon.

Hitler was obviously slightly
obsessed with Napoleon,

but the vagaries and the oddnesses
of the dictators,

the totalitarian dictators
of the 20th century,

don't really reflect on Napoleon
in any way because he doesn't behave

like a totalitarian dictator.

We don't have a secret police.

We don't have gulags.

We don't have concentration camps.

(ORCHESTRA INSTRUMENTS TUNE)

(INSTRUMENTS CONTINUE TUNING)

The mantle worn by Napoleon
at his coronation as king of Italy

in 1805 is kept in the
Museum of the Risorgimento in Milan,

a delicate object in need
of restoration after two centuries.

The mantle is taken to the workshop
of Pietre Dure in Florence...

..a conservation work that is part
of the 'Restituzione' campaign

undertaken by the Intesa Sanpaolo
Banking Group

to look after Italy's
cultural heritage.

At Thierry Radelet's laboratory
in Turin,

restoration work is underway
on the regalia from the coronation.

(MACHINE BEEPS)

WOMAN:

The Emperor liked Milan.

It was a modern city where
lively conversation could be had

with cultured scientific minds.

Here, Napoleon rediscovered
the joie de vivre of Paris

in an atmosphere that was sweeter
and on a more human scale.

And the Milanesi reciprocated
his affection.

They saw him as a man of the future,
a forward-thinker who heralded

the arrival of political freedom
and a more liberal way of life.

Women cast aside their stays
and corsets,

opting for plunging necklines,
bare arms and even semi-naked backs,

as a new sensuality took hold.

The mass for Napoleon's coronation
as King of Italy took place

on 26 May 1805, in the presence
of eight cardinals and 30,000 people.

"The church was very beautiful,"
said Napoleon.

"The ceremony was as good
as that in Paris,

the difference being
the splendid weather."

Details of what happened that day
can be found

in the state archives of Milan.

MAN:

The most eagerly awaited moment
of the entire ceremony

was when Napoleon put on
the Iron Crown of the Lombard Kings.

An object of almost mythical
connotations,

oval in shape.

It belongs among the treasure
of the Duomo Cathedral

in nearby Monza.

Starting the Charlemagne,

numerous holy Roman emperors
have worn the crown,

..and wearing it today sent out a
clear message to the whole of Europe.

As in Paris, Napoleon refused
to allow anyone of the clergy

to crown him.

He crowned himself again, adding,
for good measure, the words,

"God gave this to me.

"Woe betide anyone who touches it."

May 1805 was an eventful date,
that would be celebrated

not only in the history books
but, more importantly, in stone.

Because in this year of coronation,
an event the Milanesi had awaited

for over three centuries
finally came about.

The facade of the Duomo Cathedral
was completed...

..just in time
for the coronation mass.

(ORCHESTRA PLAYS TE DEUM
BY FRANCESCO POLLINI)

LICIA SIRCH:

On 15 August 1809, to celebrate
Napoleon's 40th birthday,

the Pinacoteca di Brera Museum
was inaugurated in Milan.

Its most important works
derive from this era.

Like Piero della Francesca's
Montefeltro Altarpiece,

at Brera since 1811.

Brera was the museum that Napoleon
wanted to be the Louvre of Italy.

He meant an instrument
of popular education,

open to the public,

a new dynamic way
to create contemporary art,

art that was relevant to his time.

That was Napoleon's vision.

Brera was something of an exception,

While the rest of Italy

was being plundered of works
to send to France...

..this new museum housed a collection
destined to remain in Milan

for the benefit of all.

Paintings were even exchanged,
with the Louvre sending over works

that would help complete
the exhibition.

The nucleus of the collection
was made up of works looted

from all around the peninsula,
starting with the North,

and particularly Veneto,

with its masters Giovanni Bellini,

Veronese and Mantegna.

As with the Louvre, Rafael
was the Brera's very own star.

His 1504 masterpiece
The Marriage Of The Virgin

became the centrepiece of the museum.

It was donated to Napoleon's
General Lecchi

by terrorised townspeople
in central Italy,

in return for his leaving them
in peace.

But when Napoleon's troops
moved south towards Urbino

and got the Citta di Castello,

the Sposalizio was donated

to the invading army.

Now, that 'donated' has to be put
in quotation marks

because it clearly
was not a donation

that was made willingly.

And the Citta di Castello still
envies the fact, or resents the fact

that the painting was taken
from them, and possibly resents

the fact that it's sitting here,
at Brera.

What is a gift when it's a gift
to an invading general?

That would take a serious
court case to sort out.

Napoleon's presence can still
be felt today

in the shape of Mars The Peacemaker,

a statue by the most important
sculptor of the time, Antonio Canova.

Canova's bronze is in the courtyard,

and the gesso, the plaster version,

is here, in one of the four
Napoleonic rooms.

Now, this statue is extraordinary.

It's muscular, it's athletic.

It recalls the Greek
marble statues,

and indeed it has a portrait bust
of Napoleon.

Canova went to Paris twice to do
studies for that particular head.

You would think that Napoleon
would have been thrilled

with the statue.

In fact, he didn't like it at all.

He didn't want it to be shown.

Napoleon considered it
what he called too 'athletic'.

Now, we don't really know
what that means.

Did he consider it
a kind of Photoshop?

Did he consider it too homoerotic?

Ever since becoming Emperor,
Napoleon had courted Canova

or 'the new Phidias',
as he was widely known

because of the sensual
naturalness of his sculpting

in the style of the ancients.

A classicist who had his assistants
read Homer's verses to him

while he worked
because they provided his gestures

with rhythm and gave dignity
to his work.

But the relationship
with Canova was strained.

An international artist,
many enemies of France

were among his clients -

the Tsar of Russia,
the Viennese royal family,

and the much-hated English.

Canova himself was far from happy
with the looting of Italian works

and resented Napoleon's ceding
of his homeland, Venice,

to the Austrians.

But of course, it was hard to refuse

the advances of Europe's
most powerful man.

Canova sculpted the most famous
bust of Napoleon,

replicated dozens of times.

The virile nose, the feisty mouth,
the profound gaze -

the first consul of France looked
more like an ancient Roman.

With some reluctance, Canova helped
to sustain the myth.

But after Napoleon's fall,
he turned into his nemesis,

helping to deconstruct that myth

by insisting the Louvre have Italy's
stolen works returned.

Napoleon's drive for modernisation

benefited Paris more
than any other city.

He lacked the time to equal
the achievements of

the Roman emperors and architects.

But a number of new projects
would leave their mark

on the capital,

like the Pont des Arts,

the first iron bridge
to cross the Seine.

WOMAN:

Neoclassicism with more than a hint
of Rome about it,

and elements of ancient Egypt.

The empire's style that would glorify

Napoleonic power, was to be found
primarily in furnishings,

as can still be seen
as Fontainebleau,

the most lavish
of Napoleon's palaces.

It was here that Pope Pius VII
was imprisoned,

an episode that was explored
in the first of many films

made about Napoleon.

MAN:

But sic transit gloria.

A few years later, in April 1814,

in those same luxurious rooms,

Napoleon would have to face
the reality of bitter defeat

after years of victory.

Here, he would sign
his abdication,

and one night,
shut up inside his apartments,

he attempted to end his life.

But hearing his cries of pain,
his assistants ran in and saved him.

(ORCHESTRA PLAYS)

(SINGS IN AN OPERATIC STYLE)

(ORCHESTRA STOPS PLAYING)

(STARTS SINGING)

(ORCHESTRA RESUMES)

Years lived to the full,
yet not without disappointments.

Napoleon was becoming intolerant,

beginning to ignore his most
trusted advisers.

His capacity for thinking and doing
different things at the same time

had turned into an obsession,
a neurosis even.

He would go through
his account books,

checking on the tuppence ha'penny
of what his hunting dogs were eating.

I mean, he literally couldn't see
the wood for the trees,

and he began to lose his way.

(HOOVES CLOPPING)

For some time, Josephine
had been absent from his side.

In 1809, Napoleon had married
Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma,

and the much wished-for son
had appeared two years later.

A dynastic
or a geopolitical calculation,

or maybe the unconscious yearning
to have a real emperor,

Francis I of Austria,
as a father-in-law.

LUIGI MASCILLI MIGLIORINI:

CHANTAL PREVOT:

The youthful Napoleon's dream
of becoming a new Caesar

took on real meaning, as he bowed
over the cot of his son,

Napoleon Francois Joseph
Charles Bonaparte,

who he nominated King of Rome.

At the time of his birth,
the French army had already

occupied the city for two years.

MAN:

It was planned for Rome to become
the empire's second capital,

after Paris, and dozens
of building projects were started.

In the early 19th century,
Rome was a dusty, decadent place,

but the French viewed it
differently.

To them, it was ancient Rome,
the city of dreams,

to be restored to its original glory.

The Colosseum was cleared
of the hay lofts and barns

that had blighted the area
for centuries.

Debris were removed
and the drainage repaired.

The area around the Trajan Column
took on the rational

and ordered appearance it has today.

Most importantly,

Napoleon's workforce transformed
the Roman Forum

into an archaeological park.

Le Jardin du Capitole.

MAN:

It's not true that everything
leaves its trace,

even in record-obsessed regimes
like Napoleon's.

Only distant echoes remain
of the extravagance

that occurred over those years,

such as the nocturnal illumination

of ancient monuments
to mark the birthday

of the young king of Rome,

who it transpired, like his father,

would never set foot in the city.

(SINGS IN AN OPERATIC STYLE)

"Rule number one on page number one
of the book of war

"is, 'Do not march on Moscow.'

"Various people have tried it,

"Napoleon and Hitler,

"and it is no good."

(CHUCKLES)

Thus spoke the British soldier,
Field Marshal Montgomery,

to the House of Lords in May 1962.

History is a fine teacher,

but Napoleon had yet
to learn this lesson.

So, on 24 June 1812,

he crossed the eastern border
with over 600,000 men,

the biggest expeditionary force
that had ever been assembled -

and headed for Moscow.

Waiting for them was the army
of Tsar Alexander I.

But being constantly outmanoeuvred
by the French,

the Russian troops withdrew
to avoid a final confrontation.

The French advanced only
to find Moscow deserted...

..and engulfed in flames.

After four months, "General Winter"
was still skirmishing

on the forbidden Russian Plains.

Time and the freezing cold
and General Kutuzov's strategy

outmanoeuvred the French,
and they were forced into retreat.

But homeward bound,

hundreds of thousands would die

of hunger and of cold.

LUIGI MASCILLI MIGLIORINI:

La Grand Armee lost a total
of 540,000 men.

An entire generation
of victorious warriors vanished

in the snow.

Shortly afterwards,
with only the remnants of his army.

He suffered a great defeat
at Leipzig, renounced his throne,

and was exiled
to the island of Elba.

On 4 May 1814,
under an English escort,

the defeated emperor landed
on Elba,

or 'the comedy kingdom',
as he called it.

224 square kilometres
against the 860,000

of the Grand Empire he had created
and now lost.

He was on another island,
like the one he'd been born on,

and the feeling that he was somehow
back where he started.

But his impulse to plan,
create and command never left him

throughout his nine months of exile.

(FOOTSTEPS)

(WATER DRIPS)

On his second day of exile,
he was already to be found,

deep in the bowels of the island,
inspecting the iron mines.

They'd been worked for millennia,

since the time of the Etruscans
and the Romans.

Napoleon decided
to increase production.

Otherwise, he calculated,
after two years or so,

he would be broke.

MAN:

Of course, there was boredom,
sadness and anxiety.

Napoleon had become more corpulent
and found it harder to get about.

But this didn't prevent him
from strolling sorrowfully

along the shoreline
whilst grieving for Josephine,

who had died shortly
after the start of his exile.

He missed his son, too,
and he missed his wife, Marie Louise,

who chose not to join him,
preferring instead to continue

her affair with an Austrian count.

In Portoferraio, Napoleon
had chosen Villa dei Mulini

as his official residence,

but life seemed empty
without his savants,

and the dearth of conversation
found him burying his head

in his books.

On his last night at Fontainebleau,
he had salvaged 300 volumes

from his library,

the books he loved the most.

LUIGI MASCILLI MIGLIORINI:

A master of symbols,
Napoleon bequeathed to posterity

the key to understanding
his escape from Elba,

a kind of footnote, if you will.

Before embarking for France
on 26 February 1815,

he placed on the desk in his study
the biography of Charles V,

the Emperor who abdicated in old age
and withdrew to a convent.

"That," he seemed to be saying,
"is not my destiny.

"I will die on my horse."

When the Battle of Waterloo
is played out in simulation

by military academies,
the French normally win.

In the simulation, Napoleon attacks
the English at first light,

before the Prussians had arrived
in support.

And he wipes them out.

On more than one occasion,

Napoleon was within a hair's
breadth of victory.

So, why, in reality, did he lose
the Battle of Waterloo?

History says he entered the fray
late, giving the choice of terrain

to the enemy, and that his cavalry
charged at the wrong moment,

and that, by now, his enemies
knew his every strategy.

And that even fate was against him.

Maybe the truth is that Napoleon
had just had enough...

..so that when he heard the shout,

"La Garde Recule" -

"The legendary Imperial Guard
is retreating"...

..he even felt a certain relief.

And maybe, he handed himself over
to the English

with the conviction
that they'd provide him

with a little cottage
in the countryside for his old age,

or maybe a passport for America.

But if he thought that...

..then he was wrong.

The selected destination
had been called

"the place furthest away
from any other place in the world,"

the island of Saint Helena,
in the middle of the Atlantic,

almost 2,000km
from the African coast,

a place from which no escape
could be conceived.

35 years earlier,
a boy at the military academy

studying England's colonial
possessions had circled Saint Helena

and written the words, "Tiny island."

LUIGI MASCILLI MIGLIORINI:

Saint Helena was a damp place.

Napoleon's playing cards
had to be dried out in an oven.

The island was infested with mice,
termites and beetles.

The English military kept his house
in the village of Longwood

under constant surveillance.

Napoleon died at 5.49pm,

in the afternoon on 5 May 1821.

Like his father before him,
he had stomach cancer.

Although poisoning was suspected.

He was buried anonymously
because of a disagreement.

The English wanted "Bonaparte"
inscribed on the tombstone.

The French wanted "Napoleon",
the imperial name.

On December 15th 1840,

Napoleon's remains
were returned to France.

Thousands of people were there
to welcome his coffin, crying,

"Vive l'Empereur!"

An imposing mausoleum
was later constructed for him

at the Hotel des Invalides.

"I wish my ashes to rest
on the banks of the Seine," he said.

"Among the French people
I have so dearly loved."

There are some other ashes
in a side crypt.

They are the partial remains
of the King of Rome,

son of Napoleon and Marie Louise,
who had died in Vienna

at the court
of his Habsburg grandfather.

Adolf Hitler brought them
to Paris in 1940.

His way, perhaps, of paying homage
to collaborationist France.

As the news of Napoleon's death
swept through Europe,

one of Italy's greatest writers,
Alessandro Manzoni, composed an ode

entitled The Fifth Of May,

a poem that reflects
on human frailty and divine mercy,

translated into German a year later
by Goethe.

The manuscript can be found here,
at the Braidense National Library.

It starts as follows...

"He is no more.

"Bereft of breath.

"He is dead."

Contemplating the last hours

of a man who had conquered
an entire continent,

a man who had savoured
both victory and defeat,

escape and exile,

the world remained
resoundingly silent.

Manzoni, in his poem,
imagines him on Saint Helena,

battling it out with his memories,
in a vain attempt to record them.

The great Italian writer
couldn't have known

that just two years later,
this book, Memorial Of Saint Helena,

would be published,

that the legend of Napoleon
would remain with us forever.

"We will write our memoirs.

"Yes, we will have to work.

"Even work is the sickle of time.

"After all, my overriding principle

"has always been that our destiny
is in our own hands.

"So, let mine be fulfilled."

It would be his last masterpiece,

a bestseller that continues
to be read two centuries

after his death,

turning his final defeat

into a final victory.

ERNESTO FERRERO:

"Yes, we can."

This attitude has become the mantra
of our modern democratic societies.

An unknown youth
from the outskirts of Europe,

who would rise to become an emperor,

then disappear amid the Atlantic

before, finally, taking his place
among the great immortals.

(ORCHESTRA PLAYS TE DEUM
BY FRANCESCO POLLINI)

(SINGS IN LATIN)

(MUSIC CONTINUES INSIDE CATHEDRAL)

# Quos pretioso sanguine redemisti

# Quos pretioso

# Sanguine

# Redemisti

# Eterna fac cum sanctis tuis

# In gloria numerari

# In gloria, in gloria numerari

# Te ergo, quaesumus, tuis famulis

# Quos pretioso sanguine redemisti

# Eterna fac

# Eterna fac cum sanctis tuis

# In gloria numerari

# In gloria numerari

# Te ergo, quaesumus

# Tuis famulis

# Subveni

# Eterna fac cum sanctis tuis

# In gloria numerari

# In gloria, in gloria numerari

# Eterna fac cum sanctis tuis

# In gloria numerari

# In gloria, in gloria numerari

# Eterna fac cum sanctis tuis

# In gloria numerari

# In gloria numerari. #

Captions by Red Bee Media
(c) SBS Australia 2022