John and I had tickets for the special exhibition of Napoleanic art and artifacts, at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Here is the description from the website: "An up-close encounter with the propaganda machine that modernized and legitimized his reign as self-titled Emperor in the wake of the French Revolution. Corsican by birth and French by design, Napoleon was a man of continual reinvention—a minor nobleman and military general whose political ambition inspired his every move. Discover the exquisite works of art that crafted Napoleon’s image and the Imperial Household that supported his audacious rise to power. More than 200 works of art—many of which have never before been exhibited in the United States—reveal the intricacies of the Emperor’s daily life and the range of works commissioned by and for him."
As we wandered through the many rooms dedicated to this exhibit, I was struck by how modern Napolean's political thinking was. He could have held his own with any P.R. company managing a contemporary politician. And except for his meglomania and a little battle called Waterloo, he did a pretty good job of modernizing French law and government.
