Propaganda: The Early Years …
Perhaps not surprisingly, use of the word first surfaced when Europe was engaged in one of its bloodiest conflicts. In 1622 during the Thirty Years War, the Catholic Church created an official group called, Congregatio de Propaganda Fide or Congregation for Propagating Faith.
Its purpose was to form missions that would venture into foreign regions and spread the Catholic Religion. Because the printing press had been invented by then, it came in handy for such occasions. Of course, it was probably more efficient to dress a person up and send them down the road to cast a message far and wide. There were flaws yet to be worked out. There was no reason to celebrate the ability to create 1000 leaflets for a village where a majority of the population were illiterate.
Art, Revolution and the Superman Complex
Napoleon: Propaganda through Paintings
Finally, in the 1790s the word propaganda was itself being propagated. It was noted as a useful way to spread information, effectively and widely. Creating propaganda to perpetuate political ideas enabled Napoleon Bonaparte to campaign and spread ideas about his military might and superhero like qualities. A painting that exemplifies this depicts Napoleon standing in a village near a group of citizens that are dying from the black plague. His health is evident. His glowing completion is visible because his face is not guarded by a cloth or anything to prevent the fatal disease from attacking him — suggesting, it cannot. It was with the spirit the French artist Jacques-Louis David was commissioned by the King of Spain in 1801 to paint a larger than life Napoleon crossing the perilous Alps, which were known around Europe for being almost sinister due to their ability to make a person lightheaded as a result of looking at them.
