Spot the deliberate mistake

[davywavy]

One of the things I find interesting about going abroad is the way historical events are portrayed from other perspectives. Having got most of my historical education from my dad's copy of the 1932 Empire Book for Boys, it often comes as a bit of a surprise that other peoples might not see the same people and events in the same way.

I've just got back from a few days in la Belle France (The Bell, France) where I discovered that they see the Napoleonic wars in a totally different light to the British. Take, for example, this portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte. It appears that the artist has made several elementary mistakes. Can you spot them?

Comments

[riksowden.livejournal.com]

Victory shouldn't be riding side-saddle - if anything she should be flying!

There should be less gilt - it's ostentatious and tacky; the French are supposed to have good taste. Stop it.

The British colour should be atop those of Spain and Turkey (I presume? Something from North Africa maybe?), and likely atop the other one - which I can't currently identify!

[belak-krin.livejournal.com]

Is that the right Flag for Spain at that time?

[riksowden.livejournal.com]

I *think* it's the arms of the King of Spain, but could be wrong - i'm not overly familiar with flags of the time!

[belak-krin.livejournal.com]

I don't know either, but I seem to recall a lot of changes in spanish flags around the time. It seems like the kind of thing that an artist working at the time would get wrong by working from books of heraldry (you'd want a symbol that the people of France would recognise as spanish over an accurate one).

[riksowden.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! I believe there were different flags for different regions too though, as I say, not really my speciality.

[(Anonymous)]

The yellow job is an Austrian Ordinarfahne. I don't recognize the black one, but since it is black it is probably Prussian (what am I talking about? if it is black it is bound to be Prussian - at what point did the Prussian people wake up one morning and decide that they wanted to be the baddies....for ever?).

D

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

You're right! Napoleon should be riding side-saddle!