Annotated Mona Lisa, The - Strickland, Carol.original_ [51]
In “Oath of the Horatii,” three brothers swear to defeat their enemies or die for Rome, illustrating the new mood of self-sacrifice instead of self-indulgence. Just as the French Revolution overthrew the decadent royals, this painting marked a new age of stoicism. David demonstrated the difference between old and new through contrasting the men’s straight, rigid contours with the curved, soft shapes of the women. Even the painting’s composition underscored its firm resolve. David arranged each figure like a statue, spot-lit against a plain background of Roman arches. To assure historical accuracy, he dressed dummies in Roman costumes and made Roman helmets that he could then copy.
David, “Death of Marat,” 1793, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels. David painted the slain revolutionary hero like a modern-day Christ
David, a friend of the radical Robespierre, was an ardent supporter of the Revolution and voted to guillotine King Louis XVI. His art was propaganda for the republic, intended to “electrify,” he said, and “plant the seeds of glory and devotion to the fatherland.” His portrait of a slain leader, “Death of Marat,” is his masterpiece. Marat, a close friend of David, was a radical revolutionary stabbed to death by a counterrevolutionary in his bath. (Before the Revolution, while hiding from the police in the Paris sewers, Marat had contracted psoriasis and had to work in a medicated bath, using a packing box for a desk.) Right after the murder, David rushed to the scene to record it. Although the background is coldly blank, David’s painting emphasized the box, bloodstained towel, and knife, which, as actual objects, were worshiped by the public as holy relics. David portrays Marat like a saint in a pose similar to Christ’s in Michelangelo’s “Pietà.”
David, “Oath of the Horatii,” 1784, Louvre, Paris. David’s “Oath of the Haratii” marked the death of Rococo and birth of Neoclassical art, which should, David said, “contribute forcefully to the education of the public. ”
When Robespierre was guillotined, David went to jail. But instead of losing his head, the adaptable painter became head of Napoleon’s art program. From the taut compositions of his revolutionary period, he turned to pomp and pageantry in his paintings of the little emperor’s exploits, such as “Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine.” Although his colors became brighter, David stuck to the advice he gave his pupils, “Never let your brushstrokes show.” His paintings have a tight, glossy finish, smooth as enamel. For three decades, David’s art was the official model for what French art, and by extension, European art, was supposed to be.
INGRES: ART’S FINEST DRAFTSMAN. Following David, the first half of nineteenth-century art was a contest between two French painters: Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (pronounced ANN gruh; 1780-1867), champion of Neoclassicism, and Eugène Delacroix (pronounced duh la KRWAH; 1798-1863), ardent defender of Romanticism. Ingres came naturally to Neoclassicism, for he was the star pupil of David.
An infant prodigy, at the age of 11 Ingres attended art school and at 17 was a member of David’s studio. The young disciple never let his brushstrokes show, saying paint should be as smooth “as the skin of an onion.” Ingres, however, went even further than his master in devotion to the ancients. In his early work, he took Greek vase paintings as his model and drew flat, linear figures that critics condemned as “primitive” and “Gothic.”
Ingres, “Portrait of the Princesse de Broglie,” 1853, MMA, NY. Ingres’s clear, precise forms, idealized beauty,