Festival at Milan, the Chariot Race, Antique Madou Lithograph, 1827

An original antique lithograph from Jean-Baptiste Madou's Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827, lettered "FETE À MILAN" in open capitals above the image, the accent printed over the F. At the right a chariot drawn by a pair of dark horses races at full gallop down a street in a cloud of dust, with a second team close behind. Napoleon stands with his officers on a raised platform beneath a draped canopy at the left, beside a seated lady and a second lady standing behind her, with a grenadier in a bearskin at the left edge. Mounted guards line the course, and the windows and balconies of the houses are crowded with spectators.

The caption below the image, in lithographic script, reads: "Napoléon fait célébrer par des jeux, l'anniversaire de la fondation de la république française" In English: Napoleon has the anniversary of the founding of the French republic celebrated with games.

The plate comes from the first volume of Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827 by the Lithographie royale de Jobard, the press of Marcellin Jobard. Its title page describes a text written by a society of men of letters from the new documents dictated and corrected at Saint Helena by Napoleon himself, illustrated with lithographed plates by Jean-Baptiste Madou (1796 to 1877) after painters of the French school. Madou, a Belgian, later became known as a painter of genre scenes.

The French republic dated its foundation from 22 September 1792, the first day of its new calendar, and the anniversary was kept with public festivals in France and in the sister republics. Milan was the capital of the Cisalpine Republic, created by Bonaparte in 1797.

The racing horses give the plate movement, and it hangs well beside other Italian scenes from the series.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.