Artists such as Delacroix, Goya, Turner, and Friedrich responded to a newly modern world by creating some of the most emotionally expressive art ever made.
Napoleon masterfully manipulated his image, and this painting meant for Parisian audiences is pure propaganda.
To fill the visual void, the westerner had to rely on his fantasies of harem life, for which opera libretti and novels offered, fortunately, enough material. For the photographer the same, of course, was also true.