What is typical?

Images of the Revolution - Liberty

Eugene Delacroix’s 1830 painting Liberty Leading the People. Coldplay, Viva La Vida.

Images of the Revolution – NapoleonLook carefully at the two following images. Which do you think to be the most realistic.

Justify by referring to evidence.

Napoleon Crossing the Saint-Bernard. Jacques-Louis David, 1800.

General Bonaparte crossing the Alps. Paul Delaroche, 1837.

The whole army crossed the Saint-Bernard in 17, 18, 19 and 20 May. I myself crossed on the 20th; in the most difficult places I rode a mule... My guide was a tall robust youth of twenty-two...

Napoleon Bonarparte, Memiores, 1823.

Read the following quote from Napoleon himself and then decide which of the two previous paintings is likely to be the more realistic depiction of the event.