Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker

Antonio Canova’s marble statue shows Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker, a colossal heroic nude in white marble. The work stands in the grand stairwell of Apsley House, the London home of the Duke of Wellington. The Duke received the statue in 1816 after the British government bought it from Louis XVIII. It arrived from Paris and was installed the following year. The floor beneath had to be reinforced to hold its weight. The figure holds a gilded Nike on a globe in one hand and a staff in the other. The statue was made between 1802 and 1806 at Napoleon’s insistence. He later called it too athletic and refused to display it publicly. The Louvre hid it behind a screen until after Waterloo. Canova, still the leading sculptor of his time, supported returning looted art to Italy. The British government paid 66,000 francs for the work, using the money to restore the Louvre’s antique hall. It has stood in the stairwell ever since, lit by the house’s tall windows. Inside Apsley House the statue rises above the marble steps, its pale surface catching the light. The stairwell’s classical details frame the figure, drawing the eye upward. Visitors pass beneath it as they climb to the main rooms. The contrast between the nude god and the military setting adds a quiet irony. Outside, London’s streets carry on beyond the grand doors, unaware of the marble giant overhead.