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The coronation of Napoleon was the crowning of Napoleon and his wife Joséphine as Emperor and Empress of the French, which took place on December 2, 1804, at Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. It took the format of a sacred ceremony, in the presence of Pope Pius VII. Preparations for the coronation began in May 1804, when the Sénat conservateur voted to change the constitution to vest the French First Republic's government in an emperor, a move ratified in a constitutional referendum in November 1804. Napoleon's motivations for being crowned included a desire for prestige in international royalist and Catholic circles and to lay the foundation for a future dynasty. The event is also regarded by historians as a propaganda exercise. Napoleon's coronation was markedly different from those of the French monarchy and brought together various rites and customs, incorporating ceremonies of Carolingian tradition, the ancien régime and the French Revolution, with a highly luxurious presentation. This large oil-on-canvas painting, titled The Coronation of Napoleon, measures 6.21 m × 9.79 m (20 ft 4 in × 32 ft 1 in) and was painted by Jacques-Louis David (assisted by his student Georges Rouget) between 1805 and 1807, depicting the moment of Joséphine's crowning by Napoleon. The painting now hangs in the Louvre in Paris.Painting credit: Jacques-Louis David and Georges Rouget