The
coronation of Napoleon was the crowning of
Napoleon and his wife
Joséphine as
Emperor and
Empress of the French, which took place on December 2, 1804, at
Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. It took the format of a sacred ceremony, in the presence of
Pope Pius VII. Preparations for the coronation began in May 1804, when the
Sénat conservateur voted to change the constitution to vest the
French First Republic's government in an emperor, a move ratified in
a constitutional referendum in November 1804. Napoleon's motivations for being crowned included a desire for prestige in international
royalist and
Catholic circles and to lay the foundation for a future dynasty. The event is also regarded by historians as a propaganda exercise. Napoleon's coronation was markedly different from
those of the French monarchy and brought together various rites and customs, incorporating ceremonies of
Carolingian tradition, the
ancien régime and the
French Revolution, with a highly luxurious presentation. This large
oil-on-canvas painting, titled
The Coronation of Napoleon, measures 6.21 m × 9.79 m (20 ft 4 in × 32 ft 1 in) and was painted by
Jacques-Louis David (assisted by his student
Georges Rouget) between 1805 and 1807, depicting the moment of Joséphine's crowning by Napoleon. The painting now hangs in the
Louvre in Paris.
Painting credit: Jacques-Louis David and Georges Rouget