Staging Power. Napoléon, Karl Johan, Alexander

As we have a good friend working at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm - The Museum of Fine Arts - we were given the opportunity not only to meet her but also having her as a guide on the above mentioned exhibition.

This exhibiton wants to convey an insight in to the fashion the above rulers wanted to be and were depicted in art and how this aimed at strengthen their power and make their compatriotes fear or respect them.
It also gave them an aura of being appointed by God, as was the common thoughts and terminology at the time.
What one display is the art of "governing through art" and how this also strenghtened the despots and their position among other rulers.
The ruler who could afford the greatest artistst to immortalize them, using the most expensive materials, was of course in a way the most powerful.
The interesting thing about this exhibition and the guiding by our friend was in part to see all the magnificent pieces of art, the room of Jean Baptiste Bernadotte (Karl Johan) and others but also some of the stories behind the 'staging' of the exhibition.

Three countries with different administrative cultures were to cooperate around this exhibition and it wasn't always they succeeded in doing so in a smooth way.
One of the items displayed was three busts representing Napoléon, Alexander I and Jean Baptiste Bernadotte.
Napoléon had been placed above the two others and this was not to the liking of the Russians who complained about this arrangement.
The museum answered that first of all one have to admit that Napoléon was the most powerful leader of the three at the time and secondly that this is the way "we do it in Sweden".
The Russians had to accept it!

Another issue was the questions about insurances for all the different works of art and some wanted very precise assertions about how this was going to be handled, while not always being as rigourous the other way around.

It was however a very interesting exhibition with a lot of extremely fine art and artistic work and when our friend had left us, to continue to work, we took a second look at the 'Staging Power'.

(Picture of Napoléon I taken from: http://blog.goldini.com/images/45737-41649/Napoleon.jpg)
(Picture of Alexander I taken from: http://www.svenskhistoria.se/nyhetsbrev/userfiles/image/1809b.jpg)
(Picture of Karl Johan/Jean Baptiste Bernadotte taken from: http://nationalmuseum.se/Global/utst%C3%A4llningar/H%C3%A4rskarkonst/bernadotte_282xxx.jpg)