Meanings that work with this painting: |
The First Class Carriage: The First Class Carriage is the rosiest picture of them all and it is as if Daumier were suggesting that life is better in first class. The pastel colours of the women's ribbons are particularly out of character for Daumier and his typical choice of colour palette. As with The Third Class Carriage this painting appears incomplete. | The Second Class Carriage: The Second Class Carriage seems brighter and more spacious. The commuters are closer to the window, which suggests being closer to the outside world, and therefore having more control over one's destiny. Out of this series of works, The Second Class Carriage is the only painting that appears to be finished. Perhaps Daumier was unconsciously signaling his comfort with the second-class. |
The inspiration for this painting came from the railroad itself. The invention and widespread use of the railroad was
but one of the many changes heralded by the Industrial Revolution. Before the Industrial Revolution, most of
mankind lived in feudal societies: there were the upper-class, the peasants and a small middle-class composed of
merchants. The Industrial Revolution did not alter this class dynamic (as suggested by the ranking of the First, Second and Third carriages), but it did change how people fulfilled their roles.
The people in Daumier's The Third-Class Carriage, could be former peasants who travelled to the city in search of jobs and are now struggling to make the ends meet. Daumier portrays working class passengers, though labelled as “third class”, as dignified despite the discomforts of train travel. The painting is recognised as one of the earliest representations of the dehumanising effect of modern transportation and the overall modernisation brought by the Industrial Revolution. Daumier reflects that the city individual is psychologically isolated even when they are shown with others.
but one of the many changes heralded by the Industrial Revolution. Before the Industrial Revolution, most of
mankind lived in feudal societies: there were the upper-class, the peasants and a small middle-class composed of
merchants. The Industrial Revolution did not alter this class dynamic (as suggested by the ranking of the First, Second and Third carriages), but it did change how people fulfilled their roles.
The people in Daumier's The Third-Class Carriage, could be former peasants who travelled to the city in search of jobs and are now struggling to make the ends meet. Daumier portrays working class passengers, though labelled as “third class”, as dignified despite the discomforts of train travel. The painting is recognised as one of the earliest representations of the dehumanising effect of modern transportation and the overall modernisation brought by the Industrial Revolution. Daumier reflects that the city individual is psychologically isolated even when they are shown with others.
| |
Meanings that work with this painting:
✔ The depiction of men and women
✔ Contemporary events
✔ Modernity
Contexts that work with this painting:
✔ Philosophical
✔ Social
✔ Political
✔ Technological
Delacroix's painting 28 July: Liberty Leading the People features individuals of various ages charging across a canvas littered with dead bodies. In the centre, striding over the heap of corpses, a bare-breasted female figure holds a rifle in her left hand and a French flag in her right as she looks off to one side.
To her right are two men; one in a white shirt brandishing a sabre running beside a formally dressed man with black jacket, tie, and top hat holding a musket. To the woman's left is a young boy brandishing two pistols. The background is filled with smoke and devastation, and just the barely visible outline of Paris.
Considered to be Delacroix's most famous work, it is one of many based on a true historical event, in this case a short-lived, days-long revolt against the French monarchy which ended the reign of King Charles X. Though he did not participate in the rebellion, Delacroix wanted to honour the brave revolutionaries in a painting. As he wrote to his brother, "I have undertaken a modern subject, a barricade, and if I have won no victories for the nation, at least I will paint for it. "
The painting is rich in symbolism. The unity of classes is represented by the presence of a bourgeois gentleman fighting beside those of the lower classes; meanwhile the national colours of France (blue, white, and red) are repeated throughout the composition, in the flag most obviously, but also in the tones of the smoke and sky, and the clothes of the kneeling figure who looks up at the main female figure.
This woman serves as an allegory for the notion of Liberty and by extension the French Republic itself (her bared breasts situate her within the realm of classicism more than contemporary history, for instance); Delacroix shows her as a warrior, ready to fight while she literally charges forth, leading the people.
The power of this work lies in its ability to capture, simultaneously, the patriotic spirit of the event as well as its chaotic, violent reality. According to critic Jonathan Jones, "Delacroix has painted the hysterical freedom and joy of the revolution. His painting survives as revolution's most charismatic visual icon. And yet it is not naive. Death is part of the glamour, and there is sickness at the very centre [sic] of progress. Romanticism is not an optimistic art. If Delacroix's painting understands the seduction of revolution better than any other, it also acknowledges the violence that is inseparable from that belief in total change and the rule of the crowd."
Delacroix's intentional refusal to idealize would be embraced by later 19th-century artists such as Daumier and Courbet who depicted scenes of everyday life, complete with its uglier or more violent aspects. Interestingly, Delacroix's image of Liberty would become a supreme symbol of Republicanism in France, earning a place on both its currency and postage stamps, and securing Delacroix's position in the legacy of France's greatest artists.
www.theartstory.org/artist/delacroix-eugene/artworks/
Contemporary Horrors: MASSACRE AT CHIOS 1824
Meanings that work with this painting:
✔ The depiction of men and women
✔ Contemporary events
Contexts that work with this painting:
✔ Philosophical
✔ Social
✔ Political
Violence as the Subject
In the foreground of Delacroix's canvas, we see a group of distraught Greek men, women, and children laying huddled (some dead, some barely alive) on the ground. On the left, a man expires from a stomach wound while his wife leans on his shoulder; on the right, a dead mother leans against an elderly woman as her child tries without success to suckle at her exposed breasts. Behind them on the right an Ottoman Turk charges towards the group dragging a naked prisoner as a figure tries in vain to stop him with upraised hands. In the background, less defined figures are engaged in battle in the devastated landscape as the ocean meets the horizon line of a golden sky. The large scale of the canvas (it is over 16 feet wide) monumentalizes the suffering of the Greek figures, and adds to the overall drama and visual impact of the picture.
Inspired by a Contemporary Event
The painting was inspired by events from the 1822 Greek War of Independence, during which Turkish Ottoman troops invaded the island of Chios and slaughtered thousands of rebelling Greeks.
Delacroix diverged from the conventions of classical narrative painting in which order, regularity, and a sense of control prevailed. Rather, this work establishes a new approach to historical drama. For one, it is based on real and recent events, rather than remote episodes from ancient history or mythology.
Delacroix brings the viewer up close to the action, and more specifically to the suffering of the victims - we exist on the same plane as they do, thus inspiring our empathy and emotional communion. Finally, rather than showing the most climactic moments from the battle, he shows us the aftermath, using rich colours and a complex compositional structure with the various groupings of figures in fore- and background.
In the foreground of Delacroix's canvas, we see a group of distraught Greek men, women, and children laying huddled (some dead, some barely alive) on the ground. On the left, a man expires from a stomach wound while his wife leans on his shoulder; on the right, a dead mother leans against an elderly woman as her child tries without success to suckle at her exposed breasts. Behind them on the right an Ottoman Turk charges towards the group dragging a naked prisoner as a figure tries in vain to stop him with upraised hands. In the background, less defined figures are engaged in battle in the devastated landscape as the ocean meets the horizon line of a golden sky. The large scale of the canvas (it is over 16 feet wide) monumentalizes the suffering of the Greek figures, and adds to the overall drama and visual impact of the picture.
Inspired by a Contemporary Event
The painting was inspired by events from the 1822 Greek War of Independence, during which Turkish Ottoman troops invaded the island of Chios and slaughtered thousands of rebelling Greeks.
Delacroix diverged from the conventions of classical narrative painting in which order, regularity, and a sense of control prevailed. Rather, this work establishes a new approach to historical drama. For one, it is based on real and recent events, rather than remote episodes from ancient history or mythology.
Delacroix brings the viewer up close to the action, and more specifically to the suffering of the victims - we exist on the same plane as they do, thus inspiring our empathy and emotional communion. Finally, rather than showing the most climactic moments from the battle, he shows us the aftermath, using rich colours and a complex compositional structure with the various groupings of figures in fore- and background.
Click to see close-ups enlarged to examine Delacroix's brushwork
Reactions from the Salon
This work was not well received when exhibited at the Paris Salon, as many critics felt it depicted the Greeks as victims, rather than brave fighters, leading one to quip: "it's the Massacre of Painting." Others saw fault with its loose brushwork and declared the canvas "le laid" (the ugly).
For decades Delacroix would battle negative critical responses to his paintings in part because of his conscious rejection of traditional notions of beauty in art. Yet his approach would gain appeal with fellow artists and viewers, and help launch the Romantic movement as well as influence the work of modern artists such as Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet.
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/delacroix-eugene/artworks/
This work was not well received when exhibited at the Paris Salon, as many critics felt it depicted the Greeks as victims, rather than brave fighters, leading one to quip: "it's the Massacre of Painting." Others saw fault with its loose brushwork and declared the canvas "le laid" (the ugly).
For decades Delacroix would battle negative critical responses to his paintings in part because of his conscious rejection of traditional notions of beauty in art. Yet his approach would gain appeal with fellow artists and viewers, and help launch the Romantic movement as well as influence the work of modern artists such as Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet.
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/delacroix-eugene/artworks/
Victims, not Heroes: THE DEATH OF SARDANAPALUS 1827
Meanings that work with this painting:
✔ The depiction of men and women
✔ Contemporary events
Contexts that work with this painting:
✔ Philosophical
✔ Social
✔ Political
A Very Romantic Story: Death, Tragedy and Chaos
The story of the Assyrian ruler, Sardanapalus, is a tragic one and so it's no wonder this tale attracted the warped interest of Eugene Delacroix. According to the story, Sardanapalus was the last king of Nineveh, a city in between the Mediterranean Sea and the Caspian Sea (present day Iraq).
He decided to take matters into his own hands after learning that his city was under attack by a rebellious enemy group. Instead of facing a humiliating defeat, Sardanapalus decided he himself would destroy his prized possessions.
His concubines - including his favorite Myrrha, his horses, his slaves would all be burned and destroyed. His knowing that he also would be burned on the funeral pyre makes his apathetic reaction all the more alarming. Legend has it the king died 876 BC.
In The Death of Sardanapalus the king faces his demise with an apathetic expression amidst the corpses strewn across his lavish room. His eyes remain expressionless while his servants fulfil his orders and continue to kill his concubines and horses.
Based on Wild Imagination and Passion
The Death of Sardanapalus was also based on Lord Byron's 1821 tragedy Sardanapalus. It is believed that Byron's story was influenced by the Greek historian Diodorus (first century CE).
Lord Byron's Sardanapalus:
Think'st thou there is no tyranny but that
Of blood and chains? The despotism of vice--
The weakness and the wickedness of luxury--
The negligence--the apathy--the evils
Of sensual sloth--produces ten thousand tyrants,
Whose delegated cruelty surpasses
The worst acts of one energetic master,
However harsh and hard in his own bearing.
Although Lord Byron's 1821 tragedy Sardanapalus was Delacroix's main inspiration, he does not follow the text precisely but instead adapted the theme according to his own imagination. In true Delacroix nature, the artist depicted the scene of the last hour in a much more destructive manner than Byron's poem.
Delacroix adds more people to the scene increasing the magnitude of disaster. He paints the ancient king surrounded by chaos; he has just ordered the death of his women, slaves, horses and most treasured concubine after learning of the defeat of his army. He would much rather destroy his own most valuable possessions than have left them in the hands of his enemies.
The exotic Orient as the Setting
This scene from the Orient was painted before Delacroix travelled there himself. His inspiration came as a result of Napoleon's victory in Egypt. The booty brought back to Europe from Egypt inspired some of the objects found in the painting; the Egyptian winged sun and the Egyptian-styled hood worn by the Moors.
Other elements, including the cupbearer's Indian turban and the elephant decorations, were inspired by India. Delacroix's goal here was to be as non-European as possible and though this painting gives a sense of the Orient, the artist had yet to perfect the theme.
Such a scene of chaos and murder recalls the intensity first seen in The Massacres at Chios.
Analysis of Style
The composition of The Death of Sardanapalus was executed in the new vignette style. Delacroix created the focus of the image in the centre of the canvas, painting the light and most bright colours in the same spot.
Composition:
Aside from the completely Oriental subject matter, Delacroix continued to rebel against the more typical European style of painting typically seen during his day.
As it was common for paintings to display balance and order, Delacroix decided to paint in the vignette style which called for a strong focus in the centre as the image becomes less defined at the edges.
The focus of The Death of Sardanapalus exists at the foot of the bed, where the dead concubine lays across the soft fabric while another is being stabbed by the king's servant. The details around this part of the scene are less detailed and darker. Foreshortening is used to create the diagonal movement to add more dramatic impact.
Tone elicited:
What attracted Delacroix to the story of Sardanapalus was the tragedy it possessed. He created chaos by adding more dead bodies and murders than the original texts suggests. He intended to evoke confusion. The disarray of this oriental scene was a direct contrast to the orderly world of the Europeans.
Brushstrokes:
Classically trained, Delacroix was accustomed to paying close attention to the detail of the line. As his style evolved his brushstrokes got thicker and quicker, creating a rough appearance unseen in Neoclassical paintings. Colours are also juxtaposed rather than being perfectly blended.
Colour palette:
The reds and yellows in this image jump off the canvas, only making the scene all the more chaotic. These bright, warm colours are delicately placed in the centre of the canvas, where all the action is taking place. They help to evoke more emotional response from the viewer. Complementary colours are used in shadow areas, further adding to the sense of animation and visual contrast.
Use of light:
Delacroix uses intense chiaroscuro to employ the vignette style. The sun shines at the precise moment of the chaos at the centre of the canvas. The freshly murdered concubine and the concubine being slaughtered are directly illuminated in comparison to the destruction that surrounds them.
There seems to be a foggy haze over the rest of the corpses in the painting and they recede into the background. Even the king himself, in his disdainful pose, is slightly hidden in the shadows. Delacroix chose to direct attention to the most hectic and disturbing part of the scene.
All Too Much: Reception of the Work
The Death of Sardanapalus incorporates much more than the death of the ancient king. Delacroix displays a violent scene of corpses. Both concubines and horses struggle for their lives' against the attacks of the King's servants. The death and lust dripping from this canvas was considered barbaric by many of the critics. The artist's fascination with violence was not shared by his viewers, so much so that his piece was not on public display again until many years after its first exhibition.
Critics were unfamiliar with the vignette style and they also found the content unfavourable. As the nude woman struggling for her life is in the centre of the canvas, the impact was too violent for many viewers.
Many people of the artist's day found this expression appalling but as time passed they began to appreciate the work for its true genius and unique approach to colour.
www.artble.com/artists/eugene_delacroix/paintings/the_death_of_sardanapalus
The story of the Assyrian ruler, Sardanapalus, is a tragic one and so it's no wonder this tale attracted the warped interest of Eugene Delacroix. According to the story, Sardanapalus was the last king of Nineveh, a city in between the Mediterranean Sea and the Caspian Sea (present day Iraq).
He decided to take matters into his own hands after learning that his city was under attack by a rebellious enemy group. Instead of facing a humiliating defeat, Sardanapalus decided he himself would destroy his prized possessions.
His concubines - including his favorite Myrrha, his horses, his slaves would all be burned and destroyed. His knowing that he also would be burned on the funeral pyre makes his apathetic reaction all the more alarming. Legend has it the king died 876 BC.
In The Death of Sardanapalus the king faces his demise with an apathetic expression amidst the corpses strewn across his lavish room. His eyes remain expressionless while his servants fulfil his orders and continue to kill his concubines and horses.
Based on Wild Imagination and Passion
The Death of Sardanapalus was also based on Lord Byron's 1821 tragedy Sardanapalus. It is believed that Byron's story was influenced by the Greek historian Diodorus (first century CE).
Lord Byron's Sardanapalus:
Think'st thou there is no tyranny but that
Of blood and chains? The despotism of vice--
The weakness and the wickedness of luxury--
The negligence--the apathy--the evils
Of sensual sloth--produces ten thousand tyrants,
Whose delegated cruelty surpasses
The worst acts of one energetic master,
However harsh and hard in his own bearing.
Although Lord Byron's 1821 tragedy Sardanapalus was Delacroix's main inspiration, he does not follow the text precisely but instead adapted the theme according to his own imagination. In true Delacroix nature, the artist depicted the scene of the last hour in a much more destructive manner than Byron's poem.
Delacroix adds more people to the scene increasing the magnitude of disaster. He paints the ancient king surrounded by chaos; he has just ordered the death of his women, slaves, horses and most treasured concubine after learning of the defeat of his army. He would much rather destroy his own most valuable possessions than have left them in the hands of his enemies.
The exotic Orient as the Setting
This scene from the Orient was painted before Delacroix travelled there himself. His inspiration came as a result of Napoleon's victory in Egypt. The booty brought back to Europe from Egypt inspired some of the objects found in the painting; the Egyptian winged sun and the Egyptian-styled hood worn by the Moors.
Other elements, including the cupbearer's Indian turban and the elephant decorations, were inspired by India. Delacroix's goal here was to be as non-European as possible and though this painting gives a sense of the Orient, the artist had yet to perfect the theme.
Such a scene of chaos and murder recalls the intensity first seen in The Massacres at Chios.
Analysis of Style
The composition of The Death of Sardanapalus was executed in the new vignette style. Delacroix created the focus of the image in the centre of the canvas, painting the light and most bright colours in the same spot.
Composition:
Aside from the completely Oriental subject matter, Delacroix continued to rebel against the more typical European style of painting typically seen during his day.
As it was common for paintings to display balance and order, Delacroix decided to paint in the vignette style which called for a strong focus in the centre as the image becomes less defined at the edges.
The focus of The Death of Sardanapalus exists at the foot of the bed, where the dead concubine lays across the soft fabric while another is being stabbed by the king's servant. The details around this part of the scene are less detailed and darker. Foreshortening is used to create the diagonal movement to add more dramatic impact.
Tone elicited:
What attracted Delacroix to the story of Sardanapalus was the tragedy it possessed. He created chaos by adding more dead bodies and murders than the original texts suggests. He intended to evoke confusion. The disarray of this oriental scene was a direct contrast to the orderly world of the Europeans.
Brushstrokes:
Classically trained, Delacroix was accustomed to paying close attention to the detail of the line. As his style evolved his brushstrokes got thicker and quicker, creating a rough appearance unseen in Neoclassical paintings. Colours are also juxtaposed rather than being perfectly blended.
Colour palette:
The reds and yellows in this image jump off the canvas, only making the scene all the more chaotic. These bright, warm colours are delicately placed in the centre of the canvas, where all the action is taking place. They help to evoke more emotional response from the viewer. Complementary colours are used in shadow areas, further adding to the sense of animation and visual contrast.
Use of light:
Delacroix uses intense chiaroscuro to employ the vignette style. The sun shines at the precise moment of the chaos at the centre of the canvas. The freshly murdered concubine and the concubine being slaughtered are directly illuminated in comparison to the destruction that surrounds them.
There seems to be a foggy haze over the rest of the corpses in the painting and they recede into the background. Even the king himself, in his disdainful pose, is slightly hidden in the shadows. Delacroix chose to direct attention to the most hectic and disturbing part of the scene.
All Too Much: Reception of the Work
The Death of Sardanapalus incorporates much more than the death of the ancient king. Delacroix displays a violent scene of corpses. Both concubines and horses struggle for their lives' against the attacks of the King's servants. The death and lust dripping from this canvas was considered barbaric by many of the critics. The artist's fascination with violence was not shared by his viewers, so much so that his piece was not on public display again until many years after its first exhibition.
Critics were unfamiliar with the vignette style and they also found the content unfavourable. As the nude woman struggling for her life is in the centre of the canvas, the impact was too violent for many viewers.
Many people of the artist's day found this expression appalling but as time passed they began to appreciate the work for its true genius and unique approach to colour.
www.artble.com/artists/eugene_delacroix/paintings/the_death_of_sardanapalus
| |
Meanings that work with this painting:
✔ The depiction of men
✔ Work
✔ Contemporary events
Contexts that work with this painting:
✔ Philosophical
✔ Social
✔ Political
David and the Jacobins
By 1793, the violence of the Revolution dramatically increased until the beheadings at the Place de la Concorde in Paris became a constant, leading a certain Dr. Joseph Guillotine to invent a machine that would improve the efficiency of the ax and block and therefore make executions more humane. David was in thick of it. Early in the Revolution he had joined the Jacobins, a political club that would in time become the most rabid of the various rebel factions. Led by the ill-fated Georges Danton and the infamous Maximilien Robespierre, the Jacobins (including David) would eventually vote to execute Louis XVI and his Queen Marie Antoinette who were caught attempting to escape across the border to the Austrian Empire.
Marat and Christ
At the height of the Reign of Terror in 1793, David painted a memorial to his great friend, the murdered publisher, Jean Marat. As in his Death of Socrates, David substitutes the iconography (symbolic forms) of Christian art for more contemporary issues. In Death of Marat, 1793, an idealized image of David's slain friend, Marat, is shown holding his murderess's (Charlotte Corday) letter of introduction. The bloodied knife lays on the floor having opened a fatal gash that functions, as does the painting's very composition, as a reference to the entombment of Christ and a sort of secularized stigmata (reference to the wounds Christ is said to have received in his hands, feet and side while on the cross). Is David attempting now to find revolutionary martyrs to replace the saints of Catholicism (which had been outlawed)?
David and Napoleon
By 1794 the Reign of Terror had run its course. The Jacobins had begun to execute not only captured aristocrats but fellow revolutionaries as well. Eventually, Robespierre himself would die and the remaining Jacobins were likewise executed or imprisoned. David escaped death by renouncing his activities and was locked in a cell in the former palace, the Louvre, until his eventual release by France's brilliant new ruler, Napoleon Bonaparte. This diminutive Corsican had been the youngest general in the French army and during the Revolution had become a national hero by waging a seemingly endless string of victorious military campaigns against the Austrians in Belgium and Italy. Eventually, Napoleon would control most of Europe, crown himself emperor, and would release David in recognition that the artist's talent could serve the ruler's purposes.
www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/rococo-neoclassicism/neo-classicism/a/david-and-the-death-of-marat
By 1793, the violence of the Revolution dramatically increased until the beheadings at the Place de la Concorde in Paris became a constant, leading a certain Dr. Joseph Guillotine to invent a machine that would improve the efficiency of the ax and block and therefore make executions more humane. David was in thick of it. Early in the Revolution he had joined the Jacobins, a political club that would in time become the most rabid of the various rebel factions. Led by the ill-fated Georges Danton and the infamous Maximilien Robespierre, the Jacobins (including David) would eventually vote to execute Louis XVI and his Queen Marie Antoinette who were caught attempting to escape across the border to the Austrian Empire.
Marat and Christ
At the height of the Reign of Terror in 1793, David painted a memorial to his great friend, the murdered publisher, Jean Marat. As in his Death of Socrates, David substitutes the iconography (symbolic forms) of Christian art for more contemporary issues. In Death of Marat, 1793, an idealized image of David's slain friend, Marat, is shown holding his murderess's (Charlotte Corday) letter of introduction. The bloodied knife lays on the floor having opened a fatal gash that functions, as does the painting's very composition, as a reference to the entombment of Christ and a sort of secularized stigmata (reference to the wounds Christ is said to have received in his hands, feet and side while on the cross). Is David attempting now to find revolutionary martyrs to replace the saints of Catholicism (which had been outlawed)?
David and Napoleon
By 1794 the Reign of Terror had run its course. The Jacobins had begun to execute not only captured aristocrats but fellow revolutionaries as well. Eventually, Robespierre himself would die and the remaining Jacobins were likewise executed or imprisoned. David escaped death by renouncing his activities and was locked in a cell in the former palace, the Louvre, until his eventual release by France's brilliant new ruler, Napoleon Bonaparte. This diminutive Corsican had been the youngest general in the French army and during the Revolution had become a national hero by waging a seemingly endless string of victorious military campaigns against the Austrians in Belgium and Italy. Eventually, Napoleon would control most of Europe, crown himself emperor, and would release David in recognition that the artist's talent could serve the ruler's purposes.
www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/rococo-neoclassicism/neo-classicism/a/david-and-the-death-of-marat
Meanings that work with this painting:
✔ The depiction of men and women
✔ Work
✔ Contemporary events
Contexts that work with this painting:
✔ Philosophical
✔ Social
✔ Political
In the 7th century BC, the three Horatii brothers, chosen by the Romans to defy the Curiatii, the champions of the town of Alba, are swearing to defeat their enemies or die. As they receive their weapons from their father, the women of the family are prostrate with suffering. This painting, a royal commission, was the manifesto for a new style, Neoclassicism. Both the architecture of the room and the poses of the warriors are rigorously geometrical.
The Horatii and the Curiatii
In the 7th century BC, to put an end to the bloody war between Rome and Alba, both cities designated champions: the former chose the Horatii, the latter the Curiatii. The two families were linked by marriage. Jacques-Louis David depicts the Horatii swearing to defeat their enemies or die for their country. On the right, the grief-stricken women of the family already fear the worst: Sabina, the sister of the Curiatii and wife of the eldest of the Horatii, and Camilla, the sister of the Horatii and betrothed to one of the Curiatii, hang their heads in sorrow, while behind them, the mother of the Horatii hugs her grandchildren.
A new moral painting
David chose this episode in Roman history for his first royal commission in 1784. A Prix de Rome laureate in 1774 and a member of the Académie, he wanted to launch his public career by creating a stir with a radically innovative picture. David presents this episode as an example of patriotism and stoicism. In this respect, he is close to philosophers of the Enlightenment such as Diderot, who advocated the painting of moral subjects. David also wanted to give his painting an original form. He sought to emulate the grand style of classicism. David returned to Rome, where he could draw inspiration from ancient art for this painting. He presented the finished canvas in his studio in Rome in 1785, then at the Paris Salon later that year, on both occasions to acclaim.
The manifesto of Neoclassicism
The Oath of the Horatii is the first masterpiece of a new style breaking with the Rococo style. The composition is broad and simple, with the life-size figures arranged in a frieze in the foreground, as on Roman sarcophagi and Greek vases. The figures are separated by large empty spaces in a stage-like area shown head-on. David emphasizes the room's geometry. The harsh, slanting light gives the figures their relief, and their contrasting characters are conveyed using different forms. He gives the men energetic bodies constructed out of straight lines and dresses them in vivid colors, while the women are all sinuous curves and muted colors. The painting became the model throughout Europe for the new style of painting later known as Neoclassicism.
https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/oath-horatii
The Horatii and the Curiatii
In the 7th century BC, to put an end to the bloody war between Rome and Alba, both cities designated champions: the former chose the Horatii, the latter the Curiatii. The two families were linked by marriage. Jacques-Louis David depicts the Horatii swearing to defeat their enemies or die for their country. On the right, the grief-stricken women of the family already fear the worst: Sabina, the sister of the Curiatii and wife of the eldest of the Horatii, and Camilla, the sister of the Horatii and betrothed to one of the Curiatii, hang their heads in sorrow, while behind them, the mother of the Horatii hugs her grandchildren.
A new moral painting
David chose this episode in Roman history for his first royal commission in 1784. A Prix de Rome laureate in 1774 and a member of the Académie, he wanted to launch his public career by creating a stir with a radically innovative picture. David presents this episode as an example of patriotism and stoicism. In this respect, he is close to philosophers of the Enlightenment such as Diderot, who advocated the painting of moral subjects. David also wanted to give his painting an original form. He sought to emulate the grand style of classicism. David returned to Rome, where he could draw inspiration from ancient art for this painting. He presented the finished canvas in his studio in Rome in 1785, then at the Paris Salon later that year, on both occasions to acclaim.
The manifesto of Neoclassicism
The Oath of the Horatii is the first masterpiece of a new style breaking with the Rococo style. The composition is broad and simple, with the life-size figures arranged in a frieze in the foreground, as on Roman sarcophagi and Greek vases. The figures are separated by large empty spaces in a stage-like area shown head-on. David emphasizes the room's geometry. The harsh, slanting light gives the figures their relief, and their contrasting characters are conveyed using different forms. He gives the men energetic bodies constructed out of straight lines and dresses them in vivid colors, while the women are all sinuous curves and muted colors. The painting became the model throughout Europe for the new style of painting later known as Neoclassicism.
https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/oath-horatii
Meanings that work with this painting:
✔ The depiction of men and women
✔ Contemporary events
Contexts that work with this painting:
✔ Economic
✔ Social
✔ Political
Along with Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii (1784), Vigée Le Brun's official state portrait of Marie Antoinette with her Children is among the most important paintings of the pre-revolutionary era in France. It was, in fact, David's advice to Vigée Le Brun, both working in the royal court, to arrange the composition in a pyramidal formation, evoking the Madonna paintings of the great Renaissance painter Raphael.
Although the leading portraitist of her time, commanding even higher prices than the great David for her portrait paintings, she was not often charged with multi-figure groupings such as this. Today, this work is chiefly recognized as a propagandist image, in that it was created to revitalize the public opinion of the queen, whose reputation was tarnished by rumours of extravagance, infidelity, and other malicious behaviours. The queen was never a popular sovereign in her adopted country of France. Her refusal to concede to court pressure, such as rarely wearing the proper attire (including the hated royal corset), only made matters worse. The massive state portrait, a full nine feet tall, is an embodiment of proper regal authority. The queen is dressed formally, wearing a luxurious red gown, powdered wing, and a symbol of the royal crown rests on an armoire in the background. She is surrounded by her children in a room adjacent to Versailles' extravagant Hall of Mirrors seen in the background. Her eldest daughter looks adoringly up at the regal mother, who holds her youngest child, who would have typically been with a wet nurse, on her lap. Evangelia Karvouni describes in a 2014 article for The Journal for International Women's Studies, "The figure of the Queen with a lively baby on her lap and her daughter leaning affectionately against her brings to mind Raphael's, 1483-1520, portraits of the Virgin Mary with child Jesus and St John the Baptist, such as for example the Madonna of the Meadow." The young dauphin, son of the king and heir to the throne, stands independently while gesturing toward the empty cradle, symbolizing the queen's fourth child who sadly died at 11 months old.
Unfortunately, the painting was not particularly successful in its mission. The posture and facial expressions of the queen were criticized for being too stiff. The depiction of the immense jewellery armoire in the background, was also of symbolic importance, for it is accorded only a secondary position in the composition. Instead of showing the queen wearing extravagant jewellery, she is "showing her children as treasures" in front of her riches. This was meant to counter a recent scandal involving a stolen necklace of immense value rumoured to have been made for the notoriously extravagant queen. That the necklace had been made for the prior king's beloved mistress, the ever-popular Madame du Barry, was dismissed by a discontent public. Although the queen is noticeably not wearing a necklace in this portrait, the association to the rumour was too powerful to overcome. Vigée Le Brun's reputation, however, was not marred by the negative reception of this painting, she continued to command high prices for her portraits until she fled France as the rioting citizens marched on Versailles on October 6, 1789.
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/vigee-le-brun-elisabeth-louise/artworks/
What was the Diamond Necklace Affair?
Fast forward to 48:50 to find out more about the Diamond Necklace Affair.
The documentary itself is about Marie Antoinette's life.
The documentary itself is about Marie Antoinette's life.
This Blog...
is for giving more information on the key paintings we study in the course. Go from here to expand into further research :)