Napoleon's missing hand, explained
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Napoleon Bonaparte was often depicted concealing a hand inside his shirt. Why?
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Napoleon Bonaparte is one of historys most famous figures and has been depicted in countless portraits. Often, paintings show him with one hand concealed inside his shirt. The gesture is a common feature of caricatures and impressions of the conqueror, and its frequent appearance has led to speculation about why he seemed to do it so often.
The answer is rooted in the gestures history. Concealing a hand in ones coat has long signified gentlemanly restraint, and was often associated with nobility. It goes as far back as ancient Greece, when famed orator Aeschines claimed that restricting the movement of ones hand was the proper way to speak in public.
Portraits of Napoleon adopting this pose are an example of propaganda the most famous version being Jacques-Louis Davids 1812 painting of Napoleon in his study. It portrays the ruler as a modest and hardworking leader, even though outside of France Napoleon was often labeled a tyrant and considered to be ill-tempered. The hand-in-waistcoat gesture became a common way to depict him during his lifetime and long after he died.
The pose also became a portraiture clich with the advent of photography, thanks to its dignified reputation and because it was a good way to sit still during the long exposure times of early photography.
Further reading:
Re-dressing Classical Statuary: The Eighteenth-Century "Hand-in-Waistcoat" Portrait, by Arline Meyer
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3046079?seq=1
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Napoleon Bonaparte is one of historys most famous figures and has been depicted in countless portraits. Often, paintings show him with one hand concealed inside his shirt. The gesture is a common feature of caricatures and impressions of the conqueror, and its frequent appearance has led to speculation about why he seemed to do it so often.
The answer is rooted in the gestures history. Concealing a hand in ones coat has long signified gentlemanly restraint, and was often associated with nobility. It goes as far back as ancient Greece, when famed orator Aeschines claimed that restricting the movement of ones hand was the proper way to speak in public.
Portraits of Napoleon adopting this pose are an example of propaganda the most famous version being Jacques-Louis Davids 1812 painting of Napoleon in his study. It portrays the ruler as a modest and hardworking leader, even though outside of France Napoleon was often labeled a tyrant and considered to be ill-tempered. The hand-in-waistcoat gesture became a common way to depict him during his lifetime and long after he died.
The pose also became a portraiture clich with the advent of photography, thanks to its dignified reputation and because it was a good way to sit still during the long exposure times of early photography.
Further reading:
Re-dressing Classical Statuary: The Eighteenth-Century "Hand-in-Waistcoat" Portrait, by Arline Meyer
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3046079?seq=1
Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com.
Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE
Follow Vox on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o
Or Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H
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