The trimph of illusion over reality is depicted in Horace Vernet's
painting of the French Armee d'Italie attempt to cross
the River Alpone at the
bridge at Arcola, 15th November, 1796. Vernet chose the moment when the young General Bonaparte took a tricolour and led the attack on the Austrian lines. Vernet painted the scene in 1826 when the 25 years of war imposed on France during the Premier Empire had been dismissed and France wanted a hero. Vernet's
painting is not mere Bonapartist propoganda, it shows war the way people wished to imagne it.The dead are killed cleanly and the wounded hit superficially, preserving the crispness of their uniforms and resembling costume figures in the Musee de l'Armee. The French Armee d'Italie was tired and battleworn, alarming their commander. The bridge was firmly held by Austrian infantry and close-range artillery which slashed through the French ranks tearing off limbs and slashing them to ribbons. Bonaparte certainly grabbed a clouor, but was almost immediately knocked into the river in the confusion, eventually he was hauled out bedraggled just before the Austrians counter-attacked. the battle raged for 2 days and was not decided at the Arcola bridge. Vernet's painting is a heroic fraud, glorifying and sanitising war for the observer.Incidentally, the artist Meissonier born long after the Napoleonic era, depicted Napoleon for generations to admire.