After Giovanni Battista Comolli

This bronze bust follows two marble portraits of Napoleon by Giovanni Battista Comolli, both held in Milan public collections. Both the marbles and the present bronze depict Napoleon wearing the Iron Crown of Lombardy, commemorating the emperor’s decision to be crowned as King of Italy in Milan cathedral, according to the tradition of the sovereigns of the Holy Roman Empire.

The present bronze is closest in composition to the marble at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna due to the presence of imperial drapery. The herm bust in the Museo del Risorgimento instead depicts Napoleon with exposed collar bones and adds laurel leaves to the composition, continuing this iconographic link to the Holy Roman Empire. Gérard Hubert and Guy Ledoux-Lebard initially attributed the Risorgimento herm to Lorenzo Bartolini (Hubert and Ledoux-Lebard, op. cit., p. 101, no. 74), but the piece is now catalogued by the museum as by Comolli.

RELATED LITERATURE

G. Hubert and G. Ledoux-Lebard. Napoléon: portraits contemporains, bustes et statues, Paris, 1999, pp. 95-101, nos. 66 and 74