What was the artist David's relationship to Napoleon?

When Napoleon rose to power, David, who had been a friend of his before the general overthrew the Directory in 1799, became his official painter. He produced several works honoring Napoleon, including "Napoleon Crossing the Alps," "Napoleon in the Plague House," and "The Coronation of Napoleon." David had served as a propagandist under the Republic (he was a radical Jacobin and member of the Convention) and his role under Napoleon, while not as formal as it had been in the heyday of the radicals, was similar. His paintings of Napoleon were didactic--they portrayed their subject as a brilliant general, a beneficent lawgiver, and as the living embodiment of the ideals of the French Revolution. David was able to flourish as a painter throughout the tumultuous years of the Revolution, including the Napoleonic era, because of his talent for distilling the political ideals of the age into visual form.