Geometric motifs including ancient roman symbols
for industry, war and science are some of the wide variety
of designs used during Napoleon's time in France.
The austere quality and the use of classical motifs
and geometric vocabulary are present in most of this
period's designs. Napoleon was a figure of romantically enlightened
temperament and enormous ego, who embraced all links with
the Classical past as a source of symbolic authority for his
short-lived imperial state.
Neoclassicism was associated with everything
from revolutionary aspirations for democratic purity to imperial
ambitions for unshakable authority.
