Da colmeia à corte: o simbolismo da abelha no mobiliário napoleônico

Abstract

When thinking of Napoleon Bonaparte, the first image that emerges is that of a political authority built through military victories and state administration. However, his government was also constructed in the symbolic and aesthetic spheres. This final project understands furniture not only as a utilitarian or decorative artifact, but also as a mediator of cultural and political meanings that influence the formation of identities and the naturalization of social hierarchies. This work analyzes how the iconography of bees, incorporated into Napoleonic furniture, contributed to the legitimization of Napoleon Bonaparte's power, transposing the symbolic imperial discourse into the private spaces of the French elite. Considering that the furniture of the period carried political messages and functioned as a visual language of the state, the presence of bees was selected for analysis as an instrument of ideological propaganda. The main visual sources used were furniture and decorative objects produced between 1800 and 1815, a period corresponding to the Empire style of furniture, analyzed using the Panofskian iconological method to understand the deep symbolic content of the image of the bee as a visual language of power. To support the analysis, catalogs such as Riccardo Montenegro's "Guide to the History of Furniture" (1995) and Jean Bernard et al.'s "De l'Antiquité à nos jours – Arts, Styles & Mobilier" (1991) are used. These catalogs offer technical and visual descriptions of French decorative objects, linking aesthetics, power, and taste. This research combines cultural history, iconographic analysis, and the study of material culture, resulting in a reflection on the political dimension of objects in the context of the Napoleonic Empire. Finally, a discussion on the use of these historical sources in the classroom is also proposed, with ready-to-use teaching materials.