Members of the Bonaparte family occupied thrones or carried titles throughout the whole of the Peninsula. Thus at Naples the royal crown was worn by Joseph before he was offered the Spanish throne; Caroline and Joachim Murat succeeded Joseph and here the Queen of Naples is immortalised by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, next to her daughter Laetitia-Josèphine. Elisa, who reigned at Lucca and Piombino, was patron of the Arts in Tuscany. Her portrait, depicting her next to her daughter, was painted in Florence by Benvenuti. Pauline, the wife of Prince Borghèse, was the Muse of the artists and depicted in profile on a medallion by Bartolini. Her court portrait was the work of Benoist.

"Elisa Bonaparte, grande duchesse de Toscane, et sa fille Napoleone-Elisa"
(Pietro Benvenuti)
Fontainebleau: Musée national du château de Fontainebleau

Lucien, made Prince of Canino by the Pope, took residence in the vicinity of Rome. He led archaeological excavations and gathered an important collection of Etruscan antiquities. Following the defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon abdicated definitively on 22 June 1815. The fall of the Empire left the Bonaparte family henceforth "stateless", welcomed neither in France nor in most of Europe, if perhaps in Italy. Marie-Louis, made Duchess of Parma by the Treaty of Fontainebleau is portrayed here by Gérard, with her son, the king of Rome.

"Marie-Louise 1791 - 1847, archiduchesse d'Autriche, Impératrice des français et Napoléon-François 1811 - 1832, roi de Rome"
(François Gérard)
Huile sur toile, Versailles : Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon)

This last room displays numerous watercolours as well as the marble busts of Elisa, Félix Bacciochi, her husband, and Elisa-Napoléone, their daughter, by Bartolini. Personal objects belonging to members of the royal family such as Letizia's White leather glove, the Dagger of the king of Rome, Marie-Louise's embroidery frame, the Crib offered to Joséphine by the town of Milan provide together an exciting picture of a family of Romanesque destiny.

"Berceau de la princesse Joséphine"
(François-Honoré Desmalter, d'après un dessin de Charles Percier)
Rueil - Malmaison, Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau