The Battle of Nazareth (Gros)
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| The Battle of Nazareth | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Antoine-Jean Gros |
| Year | 1801 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 135 cm × 196 cm (53 in × 77 in) |
| Location | Musée d'Arts de Nantes, Nantes |
The Battle of Nazareth is an oil on canvas painting by French painter Antoine-Jean Gros, from 1801. It represents the French Army, led by General Andoche Junot, in a battle where he defeated the Ottoman army during the Egyptian campaign of Napoleon. It is held at the Musée d'Arts de Nantes.[1]
In 1800, the year after the victory of French troops over the Ottomans near the village of Nazareth, in Palestine, at April 8, 1799, a jury attributed the realization of a commemorative work of the event to Antoine-Jean Gros.[2] A sketch for the final work was presented at the Salon of 1801.[3] The painting was going to have large dimensions.[4] Gros was going to be execute it, after making the original sketch, when the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte ordered that his size was to be considerably reduced, since the final work was meant to have 8 m in length. It is believed that Napoleon didn't want too much publicity for the hero of the fight, for political reasons, since Junot was overtly republican.[5] On the unused canvas, Gros would paint one of his master works, Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa, completed in 1804.[6]
Description
The painting depicts Junot, at the left and in profile, riding his white horse, in the moment when he kills a Mamluk with a pistol shot to his head, and, with his sword, he wounds another Ottoman soldier, while the son of the former Pasha of Acre is at his feet.[7] Two brigade leaders, honoured by Bonaparte after the battle are also shown. In front of Junot, brigade leader Paul Desnoyers is seen riding a Norman bay horse, and the future General Duvivier rides a black horse, charging at the head of his dragoons at the top right of the canvas.[8] Soldiers receive with bayonets the fiery charge of an Ottoman horseman, who rushes at them at a gallop, his arms crossed, with a sort an apparent fatalistic resignation.[9] In the background, are depicted Mount Tabor and the village of Cana.[10]