The YouTuber who runs TheCanvasArtHistory recently did a video on the illustration of execution aftermaths by forgotten artist Jean-Léon Gérôme, and I was particularly struck by Gérôme’s work The Execution of Marshall Ney. As TheCanvasArtHistory notes, Ney was one of the famed marshalls of Napoleon Bonaparte’s regime; Bonaparte, himself famed for his bravery, called Ney the bravest man in Europe. Here’s the work:
Source: Wikipedia
It’s the history that matters. Ney, a deeply respected figure, was executed by the restored Bourbon monarchy following a trial in the Chamber of Peers, itself a symbol and instrumentality of French Monarchism.
It’s worth emphasizing for the idle reader that absolute monarchies are easily viewed as autocracies in saucy dresses.
Again, from the YouTuber, we see the execution squad walking away. They are French soldiers, symbolic of the power of the French Monarchy, for monarchies depend on the power of the military to stay in power. They have used their primal power to stamp out Ney.
But, now for myself, Ney himself, huddled pathetically in the mud, is more than an anonymous victim, is more than some contemptible criminal receiving a comeuppance. A Marshall in the French Army, known for his bravery, and for having switched his loyalty from Bonaparte to the Bourbons when the former was initially imprisoned, and then back to Bonaparte when he returned to power. There is an implied, absolute criticism of the Bourbon Monarchy
And when the Bourbons had the opportunity, they liquidated him, without mercy, even without legitimacy.
The message of The Execution of Marshall Ney, at least to me, is consonant with an ongoing theme of this blog. It is that the monarchy, the autocrat, brings with him or her a society of chaos and arbitrariness. It does not matter how good or how bad one may be, the final blow is entirely at the discretion of someone whose merit for their position is not their positive attributes, but their negative attributes: mendacity, bullshitting, violence.
For the reader who thinks monarchies and autocrats are good as leaders, think of beloved family members being killed for no good reason, and then try to tell me again that Putin, Bolsaro, and, yes, Trump are good national leaders.
