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Jacques Louis David
1748-1825
French, Neoclassical Painter
Influences: Baroque Style, High Renaissance, Nicolas Poussin and Raphael
Education - Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, Paris, France
The Death of Marat (click to enlarge)
Jacques-Louis David
Biography
Jacques-Louis David was
a great artist as well
as the chief propaganda
minister of the French
Revolution. He is
considered the father of
the Neoclassical art
movement because his
compositions are
balanced and
synchronized, and the
subjects were generally
Roman inspired,
emphasizing loyalty to
the state. His very
first paintings, the
Oath of Horatii and
Brutus, painted in Rome
in 1784, were heralds of
the French Revolution.
The fantasy-based
aristocratic art of the
Rococo seemed an
insult upon the rights
of men and was vilified
by critics and the
general public. David
depicted the heroes of
the revolution, giving
them impressive,
powerfully built physic
like that of a gladiator
rushing into the arena.
David revered the
bloody-handed terrorist
Marat and contemplated
suicide when his idol
was assassinated. During
the notorious Reign of
Terror, one of his
favorite pastimes was
watching political
prisoners, men and
woman, being executed.
He would arrive at
lunchtime with his
political cronies and
toast the air as "la
guillotine" sliced off
one head after another.
He voted to approve the
execution of King Louie
as well as poor
Antoinette. David
believed in the
revolution and used
his mighty talent to
promote the ideas of
liberty and freedom. In
1781 the artist stated
"Not by pleasing the eye
do works of art
accomplish their
purpose. The demand now
is for examples of
heroism and civic
virtues which will
electrify the soul of
the people and arose in
them devotion to the
fatherland."
David idolized Napoleon
and liked to portray the
tiny, balding, pudgy,
unattractive emperor as
a tall godlike man. He
depicted Bonaparte as
heroic Caesar even
giving him a majestic
golden wreath.
Jacques-Louis David
Quotations
The artist must be a
philosopher.--
Jacques-Louis David
I believed, in accepting
the post of legislator —
an honorable post, but
one very difficult to
fulfill — that an
upright heart would
suffice, but I was
lacking in the second
quality, by which mean
insight. --
Jacques-Louis David
Quote
I hated school. The
masters always beating
us with sticks and
worse. I was always
hiding behind the
instructors chair,
drawing for the duration
of the class.--
Jacques-Louis David
Quote
Description and Origins
of the Neoclassic Art
Movement
The word neoclassical
means the New
Classical.
During this period
artists looked back to
the art and culture of
classical
Greece and
Rome. The spread of
Neoclassical Art was
primarily inspired by
recent roman
archeological
excavations, including
Pompeii and by the
brilliant German
classical archaeologist
and art critic Johann
Joachim Winckelmann.
Winckelmann touted the
homoeroticism of
Greco-Roman art, "beauty
is rather male than
female. But the beauty
of art demands a higher
sensibility than the
beauty of nature,
because the beauty of
art, like tears shed at
a play, gives no pain,
is without life, and
must be awakened and
repaired by culture.
Now, as the spirit of
culture is much more
ardent in youth than in
manhood, the instinct of
which I am speaking must
be exercised and
directed to what is
beautiful, before that
age is reached, at which
one would be afraid to
confess that one had no
taste for it.” His
enthusiastic
descriptions of art from
Classical Antiquity
encouraged an interest
in Greek antiquities.
Neoclassical art is
characterized by its
classical form and
structure, clarity, and
to an degree, realism.
More than just a
classical revival,
Neo-Classicism was
directly connected to
contemporary political
events. Neo-Classical
artists at first wanted
to supplant the
eroticism and frivolity
of the Rococo style with
a style that was orderly
and serious in
character. French
Neoclassism painters
emphasis's patriotism,
as well as a sense of
civility and
honorableness. The
movement was
particularly connected
with the beliefs of the
French Revolution and
was seen as
anti-aristocratic. The
fantasy-based
aristocratic art of the
Rococo seemed an
insult upon the rights
of men and was vilified
by critics and the
general public. In an
age of sweeping
revolution and
transformation
Neoclassicism became the
art of change.
☼☼☼☼☼
Key Descriptive Words and Phrases associated with Neoclassicism- Napoleonic Empire, Directoire, Roman ruins, neo-classicism, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Roman sculpture, The Academy, mythic archetypes, mid-18th century, Apollonius of Rhodes, hallucinogenic intoxication, eccentric personalities, madness, Imperial Rome components, Symbolism, Neo-Attic , spiritually significant, Ancient Greece, ethereal backgrounds, anti-Rococo, Neoclassicism, Hellenistic sculptures
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