The Emperor

The Emperor portrait sets a new standard for opulence. Where the Renaissance King is regal, the Emperor is absolute. The visual reference is the coronation portraiture of Napoleon (that sense of a room built specifically to house the importance of the subject), but amplified to operatic scale. Your pet sits on a gilded throne beneath a crown the size of a small city, robes of deep purple and gold pooling across the steps, a scepter in hand, tapestries behind them worthy of a capital building.

The Emperor style works because it takes the joke all the way. There is no irony here. The portrait does not wink at you. It presents your dog or cat with the full weight of imperial authority, and somehow (because of the craft, because of the scale, because a great painting demands to be taken seriously) it works. You look at it and you feel, for just a moment, that this is correct.

Large, imposing dogs carry this style with particular power: Saint Bernards, Great Danes, Newfoundlands, and Leonbergers look born to the gilded throne. So do cats who already believe they rule the household, which is to say most cats. The Emperor portrait simply puts the official paperwork on what everyone in the house already knows.

Hang the Emperor portrait in a place where it will be seen immediately upon entering the room. Above a fireplace, at the end of a hallway, centered above a console table. This is not a piece for a side wall. Order the 16x20 canvas, or the Heirloom Gallery Canvas if the wall deserves the finest thing we make.