With the exception of Napoleon on the extreme left and officer with telescope, these were some Old Glory command figures I traded "Bandit" from The Miniatures Page. I have many of the Old Glory command figures but this was a group I had never acquired.
The reason I'm interested in this set is because of the lady dressed in a hussar outfit as well as the general (Massena with Madame X) seated with his mistress seated on his lap adorned with his hat. A seated cuirassier officer and a seated Napoleon along with Mustafa and a couple of Guard Chasseurs.
One of the things I noticed was that the Old Glory Napoleon was of better quality than the Fantassin Napoleon I had purchased a while back. Like all Fantassin models, the scale is off. Can the Spanish not measure?
This Napoleon would be just as tall as everyone else judging by the length of his legs. The coat looks a little smaller and the chair only comes up half way up Napoleon's back. On the Old Glory figure, the coat is larger and the chair reaches the upper back, giving the impression Napoleon is short. I'm rather glad I passed on painting the Fantassin model after seeing this superior Old Glory version.
I've had these Old Glory figures to paint for a while. However my understanding is that Napoleon wasn't short by contemporary standards (just as Josephine wasn't black just because she was from the West Indies - good all British propaganda at work).
ReplyDeleteSee this article re Napoleon's height: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/03/napolean-bonaparte-having-been-short-is-a-myth/
Just wonderful how the myth has resulted in the small man syndrome.