The French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon

Throughout history artists have often represented events of their times, sometimes objectively, sometimes with personal commentary. An earthshaking event like the French Revolution called forth the passions of many artists. No artist, however, rose to the challenge of these dramatic events as Jacques Louis David did. Although David's Oath of the Horatii was painted four years before the beginning of the French Revolution, it was later seen as no mere painted rhetoric (when men actually swore oaths and seized swords) and was widely interpreted as a patriotic call to arms, a reason it was exhibited again after the beginning of the Revolution.

	Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
	The Oath of the Tennis Court pen drawing with sepia wash, 1791
	David was asked to commemorate the initial act of the revolution in a large painting (projected at about 20 by 30 feet), never however executed as a finished work. What remains of this great project is the preliminary design with contemporary figures, members of the "Third Estate" who met June 20, 1789 in the royal tennis courts of the Jeu de Paume, declared themselves the "National Assembly," and swore not to part until they established a new constitution for France. This work depicts a real oath, with President Bailly raised high on the table as fellow revolutionaries (identifiable portraits) swear their allegiance to the goals of the revolution.
	Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
	The Death of Marat 1793
	On three occasions for three different revolutionary heroes, David planned the funerals and made three paintings. The most famous of these commemorates the death of Marat, Robespierre's friend, a deputy to the Convention, and fiery orator. Rather than a moral narrative like his Oath of the Horatii, it is a tribute to the man. Although David was a rabid Jacobin who rejected Christianity, this work was called the Pietà of the Revolution because the composition is similar to an entombment of Christ. The void above Marat parallels the isolating of saints against a gold or dark background common in medieval paintings. The prominence of the wound on his right side also suggests Christian parallels and objects associated with him are treated as relics (knife, quill, ink stand). This martyr of the revolution is also idealized. His body in actuality was ravaged with a disfiguring skin disease (treated by sitting--and working--for hours in his bathtub). And in reality this was a sordid murder when Charlotte Corday, a Royalist, gained entry into his poor apartment and stabbed him in his bathtub. But the bathtub is transformed to a tomb while the packing-case furniture with its rough wood grain becomes an altar.

	Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
	Napoleon Crossing the Alps 1800
	Recall David's earlier Neo-classical paintings like The Oath of the Horatii. This work is the antithesis of the sober moral narratives of David's earlier career. Here the painting is Baroque in style with an idealized and heroized Napoleon on a glorious rearing steed (when in reality he rode a mule!). This became the prototype of all Napoleonic portraits to come--and indeed the prototype for aggrandizing military leaders. Here the Corsican upstart is also given a grand historical pedigree; the rocks in the foreground have the names Hannibal, Karolus Magnus (Charlemagne), and Bonaparte.
	Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
	Napoleon in his Study 1812
	Unlike the portrait of the aggrandized military leader, this realistic picture depicts the slightly balding, puffy-faced leader at work for the Empire. Although he is still in the parade uniform of a general, the hour marked on the clock (4:13 a. m.), the candles burnt to their sockets, and the scattered papers tell the viewer that the Emperor has just risen from his desk. The rolled paper on his chair says "COD..." for the Civil Code (or Code Napoléon--see Spievogel, page 425)--a tribute to Napoleon's role as an administrator.
	Jean-August-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867)
	Napoleon on the Imperial Throne 1806
	David was not the only French artist to glorify Napoleon. Like David's depiction of the revolutionary martyr Marat, Ingres's aggrandizement of the Emperor follows medieval traditions, in this case the picturing of God the Father. (See, for example, the representation of God at the top center of the Ghent altarpiece, part of the French war booty, exhibited in Paris in the early nineteenth century.) Napoleon wears sumptuous coronation robes (he was crowned in 1804) and holds the sceptre of Charles V and the hand of justice of Charlemagne--historical allusions to bolster his legitimacy. Steps lead up to his throne, the back of which forms a kind of halo above his head. Napoleon revived other historical allusions--the imperial eagle of Rome (on the carpet at his feet) and the bees (on his robe), a symbol of industry.