Paris under Napoleon Each of the twelve arrondissements had its own mayor, but their power was limited to enforcing the decrees of Napoleon's ministers. After he crowned himself Emperor on December 2, 1804, Napoleon began a series of projects to make Paris into an imperial capital to rival ancient Rome. He built monuments to French military glory, including the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, the column in Place Vendôme, and the future church of the Madeleine, intended as a temple to military heroes; and began the Arc de Triomphe. To improve the circulation of traffic in central Paris, he built a wide new
The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries strokes. These revisions greatly improved the compositional balance of the painting's upper section, reducing the impression of three vertical columns. They successfully moved the viewer's focus to Napoleon's face and expression and away from the presumably accurate stature and middle-heavy build. The change also allowed incorporating additional symbology, most notably the time (4:13). Other revisions were added symbols on the table items and lower section, many painted over fleurs-de-lis which are conspicuously rare in the final image. The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries is an 1812 painting by