Monday, March 29, 1999

Announcements:

• second mid-term will be held in class on Wednesday, March 31st
• bring a blue book for the exam
• know through Jacques-Louis David (plus Constable and Turner) on the slide list

• Jacques-Louis David
• involved in French Revolution
• signed King Louis and Marie Antoinette's execution order
• Jacobin
• was a student/member of the Academy
• membership in the Academy allowed stability and opportunity for public      display (!)
• instruction at the Academy included copying classical and Renaissance works
• was influenced by Raphael and Poussin
• work inspired by Enlightenment thought
• his style defined/influenced Neoclassical movement

• Neoclassical Painting
• fascination with the antique/the past
• an almost anthropological approach
• this was a time of great archaeological expeditions
• influenced, in turn, Romanticism

        "Self-Portrait", David, 1794

        "Antiochus and Stratoniche", David, 1774

• it won him a prominent prize (Prix de Rom) given to student painters by the Academy
• is a Rococo subject: love
• Antiochus is in love with his step-mother--sick with love
• this is a moment of crisis--father figures out who he is in love with
• style is severe not Rococo
• severe/precise architecture and environment
• horizontals and verticals
• mathematical underpinnings
• COMPARE:  Poussin's "Death of Germanicus"
• ancient, deathbed scene, as well
• not as much emphasis on historical accuracy
• not severely mathematical

"Oath of the Horatii", David, 1784

• sums up everything about David's style
• David bursts onto the public scene with this neoclassical piece
• taken from mythology/legend
• message: duty to defense of one's country supersedes personal concerns
• shallow illusionistic/pictorial depth
• as though on a stage
• careful approach to textures, drapery, musculature
• precision
• moment of action
• brothers: strong; sisters: collapsed, draped
• series of triangles
• brothers
• sisters (collapsed triangle)
• COMPARE:  Poussin's "Rape of the Sabine Women", 1637
• David's piece is more reduced, severe
• deals only with the fundamental, principal figures

"Oath of the Tennis Court", David, 1791-92

• received commission for commemoration of the French Revolution with which he was very involved
• this piece was never finished--political climate changed
• depicts key moment: June 20, 1789
• members of the Third Estate vowed not to adjourn their meeting until there was a new constitution
• historical accuracy
• lower level of clarity and economy than is typical of David
• likely because he had an emotional involvement
• crescendo to the center orator

"Marie-Antoinette on the Way to the Guillotine", David, 1793

• a sketch
• unlike Rococo accounts of the queen
• drawn as she passed David on the street
• David included a stringent, dry commentary

"Death of Mart", David, 1793

• depiction of a martyr of the Revolution
• close friend of David's
• administrator
• received clients/guests in his bath
• had a skin disorder
• political opponent stabbed him to death when she came for such a visit
• David did the preliminary sketches immediately after Marat's death
• David's unique approach
• murder scene into a religious-like painting
• almost an altarpiece
• references to Christ (also a martyr)
• tombstone-like inscription
• neoclassical
• reduced elements of the scene
• linear
• shallow pictorial depth
• reference to antique sculpture
• reduced color

"Sabine Women", David, 1799

• represents a call for reconciliation (in terms of current political environment)
• see woman at center
• more figures than is typical for David
• less stringent figures
• smoothed out, not muscular
• stylized, lengthened