He further bolstered his power and reputation through
his reinstitution of the aristocracy. Hoping to create loyal allies
for his government and wanting to use titles as a reward for dedicated
service to the regime, Napoleon renewed the traditional French
pomp and court etiquette. Napoleon did not personally like the
resulting formalities, but wanted to create a certain image that
would reinforce his prestige and power, and earn him ever more
respect. If such rules of protocol were not enforced, Napoleon
feared, people would be "slapping me on the back whenever they
saw me."
Napoleon thus worked hard to create an image of grandeur
and heroism for his regime. He showered Josephine with expensive gifts,
and he made all his brothers and sisters royalty of minor places
throughout the regions under his control. He modeled his court
on that of Louis XIV's (The "Sun King"). In art, Napoleon favored
the Neoclassical, and French art incorporated styles from Greco-Roman
and Egyptian influences. Under Napoleon, an "Empire Style" was
created, primarily promoted by David's paintings. Even furniture
was selected to reinforce the Napoleonic image. Stools used on
the battlefield were crafted to look like Roman chairs. Napoleonic
furniture and textiles constantly reiterated his symbols: the bee
and the pineapple. Napoleon even commissioned customized silverware.
Meanwhile, Josephine, like a 19th-century version of Imelda Marcos,
possessed perhaps the largest assembly of jewels ever gathered
in one place. When she died in 1814, the Bonapartes' favorite
house, the Chateau de Malmoison, had 3 million francs' worth of
jewelry in it.
