Bí mật "bàn tay ẩn giấu" của Napoleon

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...But the truth behind the look has little to do with Napoleon at all, and more to do with portraiture (cách vẽ chân dung, nghệ thuật vẽ chân dung) in the 18th and 19th centuries. Concealing (giấu) a hand in a shirt became a common pose in paintings as a symbol of statesmanlike (có phẩm chất và năng lực của một nhà chính trị tài ba; tài quản lý nhà nước) nobility (cao thượng, quý phái) and restraint (kiềm chế). According to a 1737 book on etiquette (phép lịch sự), The Rudiments (cơ bản, sơ đẳng) of Genteel  (quý phái, thượng lưu) Behaviour by François Nivelon, it symbolised "manly boldness tempered with modesty". That idea may go back as far as ancient Greece, when eminent orator (nhà hùng biện xuất chúng) Aeschines declared that speaking with an arm inside one's cloak was a sign of modesty (khiêm nhường).

Happy to take inspiration from antiquity, soon most men of the era, and some women, were sporting the one-handed pose when sitting for their portraits, including George Washington and Mozart. It is also worth noting that hands are devilishly (rất, vô cùng) tricky to paint well (khó vẽ đẹp), so perhaps hiding one relieved some of the pressure for, let's say, lesser-talented artists. Hiding a hand actually became so ubiquitous (tồn tại khắp nơi, có mặt khắp nơi) that its symbolism started to wane until Napoleon came along and grasped it with… both hands.

Napoleon understood the importance of image better than most – at his resplendent (chói lọi, lộng lẫy) coronation (đăng quang) as emperor (hoàng đế) in 1804, he crowned himself (tự đội vương miện) to signify that he had risen through his own merit. The pose had it all: the dignity of a statesman tempered with the modesty of a hard-working leader.

Bài trước: Bác sĩ giết người