Raffaelle CARELLI (Martina Franca 1795-1864 Naples) Napoleon on the banks of a river in Italy, perhaps Pavia. Oil on canvas. 28 x 36.5 cm. Signed lower right. In a gilded wood frame. Size with frame: 40.5 x 49 cm. After his coronation as King of Italy in Milan Cathedral on May 26, 1805, Napoleon embarked on a solemn tour of Lombardy and Emilia to consolidate the authority of the new kingdom and demonstrate the symbolic continuity between the ancient Lombard monarchy and the modern imperial power. On May 27, he left Milan for Pavia, where the triumphal welcome he received from the local authorities contrasted with the troubles of 1796. In this city of learning, he visited the University and greeted the physicist Alessandro Volta, whose scientific genius he recognized as an expression of Italian intellectual renewal. This passage, both political and cultural, marked Napoleon's desire to integrate Lombardy's elites into the new imperial order. Continuing on to Piacenza, Parma and Modena, Napoleon's royal itinerancy affirmed the legitimacy and modernity of an Italian monarchy unified under the French aegis. This carefully staged tour was as much a diplomatic instrument as an act of government, inscribing Napoleon's rule in the historical and moral landscape of the peninsula. Expert : Pierre-Antoine MARTENET.