HIT: Jacques-Louis David

[Paula Zsiray <ZSIRAYP@MCADM.MCHS.CACHE.K12.UT.US>]

Thanks to all of those who sent suggestions to find the information
on Jacques-Louis David.  We found the answer to the teacher's
question.  It follows - the web site address is:

http://ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu/~mworkman/Masters/David/jldbio.html

Historical Circumstances elucidate the apparent paradox. The French Royal Academy 
held, at first
in odd-numbered years, much later annually, a large public exhibition known as the 
Salon. In the
nineteenth century this institution became a brake on artistic innovation, but in 
the eighteenth it was
a strong stimulus. The great galleries, first in the Louvre and later in the 
Tuileries, formed a king
of theater, with all Paris as the audience. The more dramatic the picture and the 
greater attention
the better were the artist chances of obtaining the portrait commissions that often 
provided his
principal livelihood. In addition, pictures were commissioned by the royal 
superintendent of
buildings, who under Louis XVI was the comte d'Angiviller, a man with a passion for 
elevated
subjects. Jean-Baptiste Greuze, limited as he seems to us today, filled the bill 
nicely; so did an array
of minor painters now almost entirely forgotten, who covered the walls with 
historical paintings
intended to demonstrate moral truths. The oath of the Horatii, finished in Rome in 
1785, was one of
these pictures, but it pointed a message whose implications neither d'Angiviller 
nor the King, nor
probably even David at the moment, understood.

Thanks again.

Paula Zsiray                zsirayp@mcadm.mchs.cache.k12.ut.us
Mountain Crest High         Library Media Teacher
School 255 South 800 East   VOICE (801)245-6093
Hyrum, Utah   84319         FAX (801)245-3818

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