In another one of those clashes between an artist’s vision and public reverence, the bones of Napoleon’s horse have now stirred up a controversy at Napoleon’s tomb in Paris.
The artist who created the display copied from the actual bones at London’s Army Museum says it “paradoxically allows a kind of rehumanization of Napoleon,” while the head of the Fondation Napoleon expressed shock that it could be could be exhibited, calling it “grotesque and shocking.”
The horse skeleton is suspended over the Emperor’s tomb as part of an exhibit of contemporary art at the 200th anniversary of his death. The horse, Marengo, was Napoleon’s favorite; he rode it in several battles before it was captured by British troops at Waterloo. Other pieces include a painting of the moment Napoleon crowned himself, while another painted him as a black slave in chains.
