Art History: cultural alliance to decide between two paintings

Students are serving on the cultural alliance and have been petitioned to select a painting to hang in front of the courthouse. These two paintings are the final choices. Consider the two following images and present your selection to your peers. Jacques Louis David's Bonaparte Crossing the Alps at Grand-Saint-Bernard, 1801 and Kehinde Wiley's Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, 2005. What type of emotion does the painting convey? What visual evidence supports that idea? Does this painting present a sense of power or authority? If so, how? What is significant about the artist's choice of style?