DAVID, Jacques-Louis,Featured Paintings in Detail (1)

DAVID, Jacques-Louis
Featured Paintings in Detail
(1)
(History Painting)

Leonidas at Thermopylae
1814
Oil on canvas, 395 x 531 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

Leonidas at Thermopylae (detail)
1814
Oil on canvas

The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of
his Sons
1789

The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of
his Sons (detail)
1789

The Oath of the Horatii
1784

The Oath of the Horatii (detail)
1784

DAVID, Jacques-Louis DAVID, Jacques-Louis
The Intervention of the Sabine Women
1799

The Intervention of the Sabine Women (detail)
1799

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Leonidas at Thermopylae
David had begun the Leonidas at Thermopylae in 1798 as a companion piece to The Intervention of the Sabine Women. However, it was completed much later, in 1814.
The subject concerns Leonidas, King of Sparta, who in 480 BC held the pass at Thermopylae against the invading Persian army of Xerxes. Vastly outnumbered, Leonidas
and his 300 handpicked volunteers were killed, but only after their heroic defence had ensured the safe retreat of the Greek fleet.
In the final painting, as the sentinel trumpeters sound the call to arms, on the right two soldiers rush to gather their weapons that are hanging from the branches of an oak
tree. Leonidas sits on a rock facing out at the viewer, contemplating his and his soldiers' fate. Seated at his right is Agis, his wife's brother, who looks to his commander for
orders. To emphasize the fervent patriotism of the Spartans, David once again includes an oath, and behind Leonidas three young soldiers lift up wreaths above two altars
dedicated to Hercules and Aphrodite.
On either side of Leonidas are two very young warriors, hardly more than boys, one of whom ties his sandal, while the other bids a last farewell to his aged father.
Leonidas had tried to send the two young men away from the battle under the pretext of carrying a message, but they had refused to go. It is perhaps this undelivered scroll
that is partially visible at Leonidas' feet; it reads in Greek, 'Leonidas, son of Anaxandrides, King to the Gerousia (Spartan Council of Elders). Greetings.' The final sacrifices
having been made, all these men are ready to die for the glory of Sparta and in the background the baggage train departs with the possessions they will no longer need in this
world. At the top left the soldier climbs the rock to inscribe the poignant message with the pommel of his sword.

The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of his Sons
This painting was exhibited at the salon of 1789, its full title was J Brutus, First Consul, returned to his house after having condemned his two sons who had allied themselves
with the Tarquins and conspired against Roman liberty the lictors return their bodies so that they may be given burial.
Lucius Junius Brutus (not to be confused with Julius Caesar's assassin Marcus Brutus, who lived some 500 years later), had helped to rid Rome of the last of its kings, the
tyrannical Tarquin the Proud. This came about because Tarquin's son Sextus had raped the virtuous Lucretia. She then committed suicide in the presence of both her husband
Collatinus and Brutus, who withdraw the knife from the fatal wound and swore on Lucretia's blood to avenge her death and destroy the corrupt monarchy. Tarquin was exiled and
the first Roman republic was established in 508 BC, with Brutus and Collatinus elected as co-consuls. As the picture title tells us, Brutus' two sons, Titus and Tiberius, were
drawn into a royalist conspiracy to return Tarquin, and their father condemned them to death.
For the grim and terrible event depicted in the painting, David adopted a radical compositional format. The main character, Brutus, is placed at the extreme left, plunged into
deep shadow. His body is tense and knotted as he broods over the consequences of his act, he grasps the death warrant and clenches his feet one across the other. This last
detail, in addition to the position of his arms, was probably taken from the figure of the prophet Isaiah on the Sistine Chapel Ceiling by Michelangelo. For the sake of accuracy
David based the features of Brutus on a famous antique bust, the so-called Capitoline Brutus, of which he owned a copy. On the other side of the image the inconsolable women
are brightly illuminated. The centre of the picture is taken up by a still-life of a sewing basket, an emblem of domesticity, which is rendered in stark clarity.
David skillfully illuminated the grief and allegorised the suffering, fear and pain of his figures. He shows the mother, accusing and suffering, her daughter beside her, hands
raised defensively, and finally the younger daughter sunk down in pain at her impotence. Another figure at the right edge of the painting personifies grief. In the shadow sits the
"hero" with the dark mien of a thinker. His features are stoic and harsh, his left hand is holding the written accusation in a claw-like grip, and he is seated in the shadow of the
Roma, the symbol of the state to which the sacrifice is ultimately being made. Behind him, the son whose life has fallen victim to the requirements of the state is being borne in. A
column strictly divides the theatrical arrangement into the representation of the dark force of destiny and the obvious emotional effect of the event.

The Intervention of the Sabine Women
David, the political activist, was imprisoned in 1794. He survived the political change, and while still in prison planned a return to history painting and started work on The
Intervention of Sabine Women, a project that was to occupy him until 1799.
This subject, from ancient Rome, was the aftermath of the rape of the Sabines when, to ensure the population growth of their city, Romulus and his Romans abducted the
womenfolk of their neighbours, the Sabines. Three years passed before the Sabine men, led by Tatius, mounted a counterattack.
For the first time in a history painting by David, the central figure is a woman, Hersilia, who forces herself between Romulus, her husband, on the right, and the Sabine Tatius,
her father, on the left. Other women cling to the warriors and place themselves and their children between the opposing groups.
In this painting David contrasted the violence of the rape with the pacification of the intervention. The image of family conflict in the Sabines was a metaphor of the
revolutionary process which had now culminated in peace and reconciliation. The painting was a tribute to Madame David, and a recognition of the power of women as
peacemakers.

The Oath of the Horatii
David owed his rise to fame - after many reversals - to a painting for the execution of which he took his family to Rome, in order to absorb himself totally in the world of
antique forms. It was The Oath of the Horatii.
The story is from the 7th century B.C., and it tells of the triplet sons of Publius Horatius, who decided the struggle between Rome and Albalonga. One survived, but he
killed his own sister because she wept for one of the fallen foes, to whom she was betrothed. Condemned to death for the murder of a sibling, Horatius' son is pardoned by
the will of the people.
Because of its austerity and depiction of dutiful patriotism, The Oath of the Horatii is often considered to be the clearest expression of Neoclassicism in painting. Each of
the three elements of the picture - the sons, the father and the women - is framed by a section of a Doric arcade, and the figures are located in a narrow stage-like space. David
split the picture between the masculine resolve of the father and brothers and the slumped resignation of the women..
The focal point of the work is occupied by the swords that old Horatius is about to distribute to his sons. While the rear two brothers take the oath with their left hands, the
foremost one swears with his right. Perhaps David did this simply as a way of grouping the figures together, but people at the time noticed this detail, and some supposed
that this meant that the brother in the front would be the one to survive the combat.

French Neoclassical Painter, one of the most important artists in history.
Although his first works were influenced by the prevalent Rococo style of Boucher, he switched to Neoclassicism during his
journey to Rome and became the leader and even the embodiment of this new style, especially with his Belisarius and The Oath of
the Horati.
Neoclassicism was very much appreciated by the rising bourgeoisie which took power with the Revolution of 1789. Indeed, Greco-
Roman history was seen as a model for the new political class, therefore David's style, reminiscent of Antiquity, had a tremendous
success. Those who had not followed his style were quickly forgotten, such as Fragonard, who was however, the most successful
artist of the previous decade.
David also started a political career in 1792, with the beginning of the French Republic. His artistic fame and his radical statements
against the monarchy helped him to be elected representative of Paris in the Convention where he was seated alongside Marat and
Robespierre and voted with them for the death of King Louis XVI. Thanks to Robespierre's influence, he became a member of the
Comity of General Security, the police organ of the Terror, where, before the Revolutionary Tribunal, he sent several people to
certain death, including some of his former patrons (Lavoisier for example).
Nevertheless, after the fall of Robespierre (July 1794), David was threatened for his deeds during the Terror and imprisoned. His
life was only spared thanks to his students who petitioned the new government.
The rise of Napoleon Bonaparte relaunched his artistic career. The First Consul, then Emperor, chose David as his official painter
and commissioned from him several large pieces as propaganda, such as Napoleon Crossing the Alps or The Coronation of
Napoleon in 1807, his most impressive work.
However, the fall of Napoleon in 1815 resulted in a second period of disgrace. Still a Republican, David chose to go into exile in
Belgium in order not to serve a king, even though King Louis XVIII had forgiven him for having voted for the death of his brother. In
Brussels, David opened a new workshop and still continued to teach his art to a number of students.
He died in exile in 1825. His oeuvre influenced academic painting until the beginning of the 20th century.

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