III EMPIRE

Geometric motifs including ancient roman symbols for industry; war and science are some of the wide variety of designs used during Napoleons time in France. The austere quality, the use of classical motifs and geometric vocabulary are present in most designs of this period.

Napoleon was a figure of romantically enlightened temperament and enormous ego, who embraced all links with the Classical past as a source of symbolic authority for his short-lived imperial state. Neoclassicism was associated with everything from revolutionary aspirations for democratic purity to imperial ambitions for unshakable authority.