Visual analysis: forty centuries look down on you! Many people of respectable status are popularized by great legends and first-hand accounts of their deeds. Before the age of the Internet and the rapid spread of information, political leaders often relied on commissioning official paintings or photographs to show the public the nature of their character and their achievements. However, these images were not always truthful in their depiction of events and could even be considered advertising or propaganda in the modern sense. Regardless of how faithful these images were to the events they depicted, leaders still took pride in the quality of the works and required that they be composed to be of the highest quality the time would allow. One of these leaders was Napoleon Bonaparte, the first emperor of France. Napoleon commissioned Antoine-Jean Gros as his personal portrait painter, tasked with depicting his great victories in Europe and the Middle East with eye-catching and extravagant paintings, to gain more support for his government in France. In his painting, The Battle of the Pyramids, Gros uses emphasis, symbolism, and hyperbolic contrast to promote the legend of Napoleon as a noble figure and great conqueror. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The painting immediately captures the viewer's eye through the use of movement and composition, drawing them to Napoleon in the central frame of the work, calmly mounted on an alabaster white horse with golden ornamentation, contrasting with the more brown and caramel-colored horses of the other figures. To Napoleon's left and right are his officers, dressed in navy blue and scarlet French uniforms and with dark blue bicorns and gold epaulettes, who look at him with admiration and respect. Many of them wave their sabers in the air to salute Napoleon. At the bottom right of the painting is a group of Orientals, Turks and Egyptians. They are depicted (with blatant inaccuracy) as wearing nothing but cloth robes, or even no clothing at all, with occasionally a turban. A Turkish and an Egyptian soldier exultantly hold out their hands towards Napoleon and his officers, under the weight of a fallen Sudanese soldier. To their right is a bearded man wearing a blue robe, carrying a naked man and a woman wearing a lavender dress and a white veil on his shoulders. Scattered around the orientals are a collection of discarded weapons, shields and accessories. Far in the background of the work are the pyramids of the title, visible against the clear blue sky that meets the horizon, but slightly obscured by their distance from the foreground figures and the clouds of dust kicked up during the battle. Napoleon makes a flat gesture with his left hand to attract the attention of his men, while his right hand, gripping the reins of his horse, points towards the pyramids. The elements of this painting are clearly designed to draw attention to the central figure of the work, Napoleon Bonaparte, and paint him as an almost messianic figure. On Napoleon's sides, his officers wave their sabres. Jean Lannes, the man to Napoleon's left astride the dark brown horse, swings his sword downward and to the right. All of their weapons curve inward towards the center of the painting, creating in a sense a circle of swords that “trap” the viewer's eye in the central third of the composition. Everyone in the painting also looks towards Napoleon, which further contributes to this effect. The outstretched hands of the fallen Ottoman soldiers also add to the enveloping “circle”..