Artistic Revolution : David & Delacroix

Also, the painting lets us see the ideal of sacrificing. Sacrificing is not meant in the context of the Antiquity where it can mean actually sacrificing a human life, but as to bring a sacrifice. Everything must be sacrificed for the main ideal and in this case, that is the French Revolution. It is about the personal sacrifice for a ideological political situation. The Horatii brothers are willing to sacrifice their lives for the victory of Rome. Eventually, two brother sacrifice themselves for the greater good that is the city of Rome. Publius Horatio fights on and beats the Curatii, he fights for the ideal of the city of Rome. That same reasoning and interpretation can be made in relation with France and the French Revolution. The French people needs to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, according to David. The most important thing is that the ideals of the French Revolution keep existing and that there is no monarchy in France. (Khan Academy)

A glint of good news came to the now-impoverished family when the merchant heard that a ship containing his merchandise had just arrived in port. The merchant was overjoyed and went to claim his wealth, only to find that there had been a legal ordeal and he had, indeed, lost it all. Here, the author tries to illustrate the French government’s inadequacy in meeting the needs of the people. In the 1850s, great minds, including the Swiss/French political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, were writing that the authority to rule came from the people themselves. Furthermore, philosophers argued that the government’s duty was not to serve their own decadence but rather to serve the people. The French government, being an absolute monarchy, was ruled by only the word of Louis XV, and the royal Bourbon family had a history of ruling to meet their own selfish desires. The French monarchy did not uphold the intrinsic promise and duty of any government to protect, feed, and serve its people. De Beaumont symbolizes this by failing to deliver the goods to the impoverished former merchant. In other words, just like the merchant’s undelivered goods, the

The first painting, Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David, depicts one of the great philosophers, Socrates being sentenced to death. Socrates was a famous Athenian philosopher. It was through the works of Plato, Socrates’s student, that we learn about the trials and imprisonment that Socrates endured for his way of thinking. Through David’s painting style and use of Neoclassicism, viewers can understand the significance.

The two artists that I have chosen are: Pablo Picasso "Guernica" and Eugene Delacroix "Liberty Leading the people". Eugene Delacroix was born in France and was under the strict mentor ship of Pierre Guerin (Przybylek, 1). When Delacroix was seventeen, he began to pursue his studies at the Rouen and under the strict membership of Guerin; he quickly lost interest in neoclassical style and began to pursue Romanticism. Romanticism can be defined as," the movement in nineteenth-century European culture, concerned with the power of the imagination and greatly valuing intense feeling"(DeWitte Larmann Shields, 405). Romanticism was used to describe the conflict of the European and American Revolution. Romanticism was used to challenge the current state of society. "Liberty Leading the People", embodies the sacrifices of a changing society. Delacroix uses an oil medium that is supported by a canvas (Artble, 1). To use an oil as medium gives the piece "a rich luminosity that captivates the emotions of the viewer"(DeWitte Larmann Shields, 186).

Oath of the Horatii Jacques-Louis David (1784) This painting holds an important place in the work Jacques-Louis David and in historical French art. Commissioned by the administrator of royal residences in 1784, the story involved in the painting takes place during the wars between Rome and Alba in 669 B.C. “It has been decided that the dispute between the two cities must be settled by an unusual form of combat to be fought by two groups of three champions each. The two groups are the three Horatii brothers and the three Curiatii brothers.

Through my initial investigation I discovered a painting of the Tennis Court Oath, by Jacques Louis David, and a book, The Age of Revolution, written by Eric Hobsbawm. The Tennis Court Oath depicts the pledge of the Third Estate to write their own constitution against the Estates General, and the book contains a small analysis of the French Revolution. The Age of Revolution analyses the more radical parts of the French Revolution, with some insight into the Jacobin objectives.

Jaques-Louis David’s Oath of the Horatii illustrates a scene from a Roman tradition about a feud between two battling cities, Rome and Alba Longa. It emphasizes the importance of self-sacrifice for one's country and patriotism, when three brothers from a Roman family, the Horatii, agree to end the war by fighting three brothers from a family of Alba Longa, the Curiatii. David decided to stage the beginning, rather than the climax of the drama, seeing that initial moment as being more grandeur. He intended it to be a proclamation of the new neoclassical style in which dramatic lighting, ideal forms, and gestural clarity are accentuated. The atmosphere of the background is softened by shades of green, brown, and pink, all very subtle, which in

During the first eighteen centuries AD the freedom of speech was under brutal attack. Everywhere, in the world there was political instability. Different part of the world was rocked by tyranny. In this time, to restore parity people had fought hard. One of the spotlight was France. Although, the Roman Empire had split long time ago, the monarchical division of the iron empire spread across the side of Europe. The revolution had to be choreographed appropriately and carefully, to counter this growing European tyranny and aristocracy. An art was used as a mode of communicating revolutionary ideas by artists. Using an art, a wave of revolution was established in France which turn out to be a fruit for the people of France. However, the force emerging from that piece of art was so high that no political opposition could managed to encounter, though they had banned the Marriage of Figaro.

Jacques-Louis David, was an influential neoclassical painter born in the 1740’s. He was born into an affluent home in Paris, France. At an early age David’s father was slain in a duel, and was taken to his well-to-do uncles’ home where he remained for the rest of his childhood. His uncles looked that he received a prestigious education, so David went and enrolled into the University of Paris. He was reported to have never been a good student, some of which was attributed to his facial tumor, and constant sketching. Shortly after leaving the University of Paris he began studying under Joseph-Marie Vien, who was a large influence in David’s neoclassical painting style. David finally won the coveted Prix de Rome (after four attempts). The Prix

The painting ‘Oath of the Horatii’ of 1785 confirms David’s new style. In the end of 1782, the tragedy Horace of the playwright Corneille is represented and the last act of the play makes a strong impression upon David. Indeed, the first sketch of the painting depicts the scene in which the aged Horace speaks to the crowd in defence of his accused son, victor over the Curiatii. This sketch, however, does not satisfied David due to its lack of communication, so, inspired by the classical history of the period, he decides to depict a more communicative and powerful scene: the oath of the Horatii. He starts to paint it in Paris but, believing that only in Rome he could paint a Roman picture, symbol of patriotism, he moves to the Eternal City

ten feet tall. The painting was done by Jacques-Louis David, who was the leading Neoclassical painter in France during the eighteenth century. David rejected the Rococo style that was popular of that time, which was characterized by fantasy and playfulness. David was interested in painting images with antiquity. The Oath of the Horatii has elements of classical Greek and Roman art and architecture. Oath of the Horatii was a political painting that David had comprised to stimulate the publics attention (Fred S. Kleiner 680).

Jacquies Louis David (pronounced Daveed) was from the Neoclassical style of painting. He preferred clear drawing and shading. He drew the “Oath of Horatii” in 1785 and was considered in response the Rococco style of painting. In 1789 France was on the brink or a Revolution and David wanted to show his support for the rebels and so this painting was

Eugene Delacroix's painting Liberty Leading the People made in 1830 falls under the era of Romanticism. Even if we did not have the knowledge of the year this was painted, we would be able to discern its Romantic origin. Delacroix uses elements of art and subject matter to achieve this romantic work of art.

And even though, The Oath of the Horatii is essentially a Neoclassical painting, it is “filled with undercurrents of Romanticism” (Janson 815). The painting depicts a truly horrific scene, the tragedy of which can be felt by the viewer, unlike the regular Neo-classical paintings that represented the values of calmness and composure. Where on the first glance, the painting might appear frozen and still, on further investigation we know that it is not static. Especially if seen in real life, this 13-foot tall painting is dynamic with human emotions and there is a palpable underlying tension in this scene. The painting is frightening and is not simply representing a historic scene but does more than that. It also in a way depicts the past as well as the future violence that would take place and gives us an idea of the after effects of the violence, referring to the time when “Horatius returns home and kills his sister when she curses him of killing her fiancé” (Janson

In Liberty: Leading the People, Delacroix uses a triangle to compose the piece (Fig 2), with Liberty at the peak of the pyramid and the people at the bottom in order to balance out the composition, compared to The Death of Sardanapalus, “ Delacroix’s painting offers no clear recession into depth. There is no logical sense of scale or perspective.” (Walsh) The Death of Sardanapalus is just clustered and a mess with no real balance or logic. Romantic art is characterized as straying away from traditional art forms, thus this piece is a piece reminiscent to the art style known as Romanticism.