Portrait of Napoleon I Bonaparte with the Iron Crown

The portrait of Napoleon I is a very refined artwork by the French painter and miniaturist Maximilien Villers.

He was scholar at the Acàdemie Royale from 1788 to 1791 and he was specialized in portraits and miniatures. Thanks to the excellent quality of his artworks he basically became Napoleon Bonaparte's official miniaturist. He exhibited paintings and miniatures at the Salons in 1793 and in 1804.

In detail this miniature is a profile portrait of Napoleon in a classical style with his head surrounded by the Iron Crown. Both for the iconography and for the historical period, the artwork could be considered to be made to celebrate the coronation of Napoleon as King of Italy, happened at the Duomo of Milan on May 26, 1805 (the miniature is so coeval to the event or a little bit after). Just one year before, on December 2, 1804, Napoleon had been named Emperor of France at Notre Dame in the presence of Pope Pius VII. The coronation as King of Italy with the Iron Crown has been the moment in which a famous anectode said that Napoleon put the crown on his head by himself pronouncing the very well known sentence "God gives it to me, beware whoever touches it". The Iron Crown (coronation as King of Italy) completes with the emperial coronation (Golden Crown) and the coronation as King of Germany (Silver Crown) the triad of the titles of the Holy Roman Empire. In this artwork Villers underlines the highest destiny of Napoleon painting him in a marble bust of ancient Caesar. 

Excellent conditions. Including oval frame in golden bronze in triple order, almost certainly coeval.