Napoleon facing his history. In front of the historical figures he knew and the battles he lost. And all without leaving the Prado Museum, contemplating Goya paintings such as The Executions of May 3 or The Surrender of Bailén by José Casado del Alisal. The Prado and Sony released a video yesterday in which an actor dressed in the suit – brought from Los Angeles – that Joaquin Phoenix wears in Ridley Scott's new film tours the rooms of the Madrid art gallery where on Monday Scott himself will present the film in Spain. The director will take a more extensive tour of the museum's rooms than that of the resurrected French emperor, who in his first life could not visit the Prado because he opened it in 1819, when he had already been deported to the Atlantic island of Saint Helena. .
From the Prado they explain that they always look for ways to remember the current events of the museum and the stories that are told there and also bring culture closer to the citizens, and that in this case Sony Spain was looking for a different place to premiere the film and they entered into contact. “The premiere of a film by a great director, who will come to the museum for the presentation, is the opportunity to give life to Goya's paintings that portray the historical figures with whom Napoleon met, such as Charles IV and Ferdinand VII and their intrigues , and also the battle of Bailén, the first French defeat in the open field, although Napoleon was not there, and of course the executions,” they reason from the center.
In the video, Napoleon contemplates The Family of Charles IV, in which Goya makes a masterful psychological portrait of the characters of the reigning family, especially Charles IV and his heir Ferdinand VII, whom the general would force to abdicate in Bayonne. . The emperor also observes Fernando VII with a royal mantle, by Goya himself, as well as two key scenes from the war of independence such as May 2, 1808 in Madrid or The fight with the Mamelukes – in which the people of Madrid try to prevent the departure of the last members of the French royal family and attacks the Mamelukes, an army corps from Egypt – and The 3rd of May in Madrid or The Executions, which includes the punishment for the revolt. Napoleon also stands before José Casado del Alisal's Surrender of Bailén, with the capitulation in 1808 of French General Dupont to the Spanish troops of General Castaños.
