October Announcements [Napoleon Descending from the Alps by Jack Huang]: 十月公告【黄孤忠】《拿破仑下阿尔卑斯山》

October 19, 2023

October Announcements [Napoleon Descending from the Alps by Jack Huang]: 十月公告【黄孤忠】《拿破仑下阿尔卑斯山》

Music: Eli & Fur - Skyway

Hi all, a super quick announcement. I have not forgotten you, I am still scrounging the artworks and sources for the next few articles. So far for the rest of October I will release several short pieces and then have multiple major ones on the burner and coming soon. I will try to space out both articles relating to later Chinese dynasties as well as those of the high Warring States era. So keep tuned.

Meanwhile as you can see by the banner art I have chosen that I have spent much of October and last few months doing more artworks on the side, both for commission and for personal pleasure. Here is an example of a young Napoleon that I recently finished. The work took over much of this week for me and involved a combination of Ai, Photomanipulation, Photobashing, and digital paintovers. I did it to both stoke my enthusiasm for Ridley Scott's coming Napoleon but also make this as an anniversary reminder of my Napoleon from last year this month. A great deal of period accurate research went into this- including his uniform (which he wore after the Battle of Marengo) and also his saber and the Cispadane Republic's banner.

Alternative flag with the flag of the Cispadane Republic in northern Italy (Repubblica Cispadana) the first Italian sovereign State to adopt the Italian tricolour as its flag. The inspiration is obvious from the great 19th century Romanticist masters like Delacroix and a great degree from Jacque Louis David. I chose to go after Napoleon at this age because he is still very much in his larval form- yet one where he is far outperforming on the battlefield than any one would have estimated. A picture of youth and confidence as he ruminate upon the world.

The timeframe would be around 1796- 1797, around the time Napoleon and Masséna proved themselves to be 2 feral devils out of Hell against the Austrians and scoring their blistering series of victories that opened up Italy for them. Here, after the bloodletting and tribulations- the still young and cocksure Napoleon came down from the Alps under the wintry new morning light poised to impose Republicanism (at least under the guise of Republicanism) to become the shaper and lawmaker in the Po Valley below. A new dawn had came to Northern Italy, and Italy as a whole would be irrevocably changed.