1.
Jacques-Louis David
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Jacques-Louis David was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. David later became a supporter of the French Revolution and friend of Maximilien Robespierre. Imprisoned after Robespierres fall from power, he aligned himself with yet another political regime upon his release, at this time he developed his Empire style, notable for its use of warm Venetian colours. After Napoleons fall from Imperial power and the Bourbon revival, David exiled himself to Brussels, then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, where he remained until his death. David had a number of pupils, making him the strongest influence in French art of the early 19th century. Jacques-Louis David was born into a family in Paris on 30 August 1748. When he was nine his father was killed in a duel. He covered his notebooks with drawings, and he said, I was always hiding behind the instructors chair. Soon, he desired to be a painter, but his uncles and he overcame the opposition, and went to learn from François Boucher, the leading painter of the time, who was also a distant relative. Boucher was a Rococo painter, but tastes were changing, Boucher decided that instead of taking over Davids tutelage, he would send David to his friend, Joseph-Marie Vien, a painter who embraced the classical reaction to Rococo. There David attended the Royal Academy, based in what is now the Louvre, each year the Academy awarded an outstanding student the prestigious Prix de Rome, which funded a three- to five-year stay in the Eternal City. Each pensionnaire was lodged in the French Academys Roman outpost, which from the years 1737 to 1793 was the Palazzo Mancini in the Via del Corso. David competed for, and failed to win, the prize for three years, each failure contributing to his lifelong grudge against the institution. After his second loss in 1772, David went on a hunger strike, confident he now had the support and backing needed to win the prize, he resumed his studies with great zeal—only to fail to win the Prix de Rome again the following year. Finally, in 1774, David was awarded the Prix de Rome on the strength of his painting of Erasistratus Discovering the Cause of Antiochus Disease, a subject set by the judges. In October 1775 he made the journey to Italy with his mentor, Joseph-Marie Vien, while in Italy, David especially studied the works of 17th-century masters such as Poussin, Caravaggio, and the Carracci. Mengs principled, historicizing approach to the representation of classical subjects profoundly influenced Davids pre-revolutionary painting, such as The Vestal Virgin, mengs also introduced David to the theoretical writings on ancient sculpture by Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the German scholar held to be the founder of modern art history. In 1779, David toured the newly excavated ruins of Pompeii, while in Rome, David also assiduously studied the High Renaissance painters, Raphael making a profound and lasting impression on the young French artist
2.
Cleveland Museum of Art
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The Cleveland Museum of Art is an art museum located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on Clevelands east side. Internationally renowned for its holdings of Asian and Egyptian art. The museum has remained true to the vision of its founders, keeping general admission free to the public. With about 598,000 visitors annually, it is one of the most visited art museums in the world, for the benefit of all people, forever. The Cleveland Museum of Art was founded as a trust in 1913 with an endowment from prominent Cleveland industrialists Hinman Hurlbut, John Huntington and Horace Kelley. The neoclassical, white Georgian Marble, Beaux-Arts building was constructed on the edge of Wade Park. Wade Park and the museum were designed by the architectural firm, Hubbell & Benes. The 75-acre green space takes its name from philanthropist Jeptha H. Wade, the museum opened its doors to the public on June 6,1916, with Wades grandson, Jeptha H. Wade II, proclaiming it, for the benefit of all people, forever. Wade, like his grandfather, had a great interest in art and served as the museums first vice-president, today, the park, with the museum still as its centerpiece, is on the National Register of Historic Places. In March 1958, the first addition to the building opened and this addition, which was on the north side of the original building, was designed by the Cleveland architectural firm of Hayes and Ruth and consisted of new gallery space and a new art library. The museum again expanded in 1971 with the opening of the North Wing, the museums main entrance now shifted to the North Wing. The auditorium, classrooms, and lecture halls shifted into the North Wing, allowing this space in the Original Building to be turned into gallery space. In 1983, a West Wing, designed by the Cleveland architectural firm of Dalton, van Dijk, Johnson and this provided larger library space, as well as nine new galleries. Between 2001 and 2012, the 1958 and 1983 additions were demolished, designed by Rafael Viñoly, this $350 million project doubled the museums size to 592,000 square feet. Viñoly covered the space created by the demolition of the 1958 and 1983 structures with a glass-roofed atrium, the east wing opened in 2009, and the north wing and atrium in 2012. The West Wing opened on January 2,2014, the museums building and renovation project, Building for the Future, began in 2005 and was originally targeted for completion in 2012 at projected costs of $258 million. The $350 million project—two-thirds of which was earmarked for the renovation of the original 1916 structure—added two new wings, and was the largest cultural project in Ohios history. The new east and west wings, as well as the enclosing of the courtyard under a soaring glass canopy, have brought the museums total floor space to 592,000 square feet
3.
Cupid and Psyche
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Cupid and Psyche is a story originally from Metamorphoses, written in the 2nd Century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis. It concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love between Psyche and Cupid or Amor, and their union in a sacred marriage. Although the only extended narrative from antiquity is that of Apuleius, Eros, since the rediscovery of Apuleiuss novel in the Renaissance, the reception of Cupid and Psyche in the classical tradition has been extensive. The story has been retold in poetry, drama, and opera, and depicted widely in painting, sculpture, Psyches Roman name through direct translation is Anima. The tale of Cupid and Psyche is placed at the midpoint of Apuleiuss novel, the novel itself is a first-person narrative by the protagonist Lucius. Transformed into a donkey by magic gone wrong, Lucius undergoes various trials and adventures, Psyches story has some similarities, including the theme of dangerous curiosity, punishments and tests, and redemption through divine favor. As a structural mirror of the plot, the tale is an example of mise en abyme. The happy ending for Psyche is supposed to assuage Charites fear of rape, there were once a king and queen, rulers of an unnamed city, who had three daughters of conspicuous beauty. The youngest and most beautiful was Psyche, whose admirers, neglecting the worship of the love goddess Venus, instead prayed. It was rumored that she was the coming of Venus. Venus is offended, and commissions Cupid to work her revenge, Cupid instead scratches himself with his own dart, which makes any living thing fall in love with the first thing it sees. As soon as Cupid scratches himself he falls deeply in love with Psyche, although her two humanly beautiful sisters have married, the idolized Psyche has yet to find love. Her father suspects that they have incurred the wrath of the gods, Psyche is arrayed in funeral attire, conveyed by a procession to the peak of a rocky crag, and exposed. Marriage and death are merged into a rite of passage. Zephyr the West Wind bears her up to meet her match, and deposits her in a lovely meadow. The transported girl awakes to find herself at the edge of a cultivated grove, exploring, she finds a marvelous house with golden columns, a carved ceiling of citrus wood and ivory, silver walls embossed with wild and domesticated animals, and jeweled mosaic floors. A disembodied voice tells her to make herself comfortable, and she is entertained at a feast that serves itself, although fearful and without sexual experience, she allows herself to be guided to a bedroom, where in the darkness a being she cannot see makes her his wife. She gradually learns to look forward to his visits, though he always departs before sunrise and forbids her to look upon him, and soon she becomes pregnant
4.
Cupid
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In classical mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus and he is also known in Latin as Amor. Although Eros is generally portrayed as a winged youth in Classical Greek art. During this time, his iconography acquired the bow and arrow that represent his source of power, a person, or even a deity, in myths, Cupid is a minor character who serves mostly to set the plot in motion. He is a character only in the tale of Cupid and Psyche. Although other extended stories are not told him, his tradition is rich in poetic themes and visual scenarios, such as Love conquers all. In art, Cupid often appears in multiples as the Amores, or amorini in the terminology of art history. Cupids are a frequent motif of both Roman art and later Western art of the classical tradition, in the 15th century, the iconography of Cupid starts to become indistinguishable from the putto. Cupid continued to be a figure in the Middle Ages. In the Renaissance, a renewed interest in classical philosophy endowed him with complex allegorical meanings, in contemporary popular culture, Cupid is shown drawing his bow to inspire romantic love, often as an icon of Valentines Day. The Romans reinterpreted myths and concepts pertaining to the Greek Eros for Cupid in their own literature and art, in the Greek tradition, Eros had a dual, contradictory genealogy. He was among the gods who came into existence asexually, after his generation. In Hesiods Theogony, only Chaos and Gaia are older, before the existence of gender dichotomy, Eros functioned by causing entities to separate from themselves that which they already contained. At the same time, the Eros who was pictured as a boy or slim youth was regarded as the child of a divine couple, in Latin literature, Cupid is usually treated as the son of Venus without reference to a father. Seneca says that Vulcan, as the husband of Venus, is the father of Cupid and this last Cupid was the equivalent of Anteros, Counter-Love, one of the Erotes, the gods who embody aspects of love. The multiple Cupids frolicking in art are the manifestation of these proliferating loves and desires. During the English Renaissance, Christopher Marlowe wrote of ten thousand Cupids, in Ben Jonsons wedding masque Hymenaei, in the later classical tradition, Cupid is most often regarded as the son of Venus and Mars, whose love affair represented an allegory of Love and War. The duality between the primordial and the sexually conceived Eros accommodated philosophical concepts of Heavenly and Earthly Love even in the Christian era, Cupid is winged, allegedly, because lovers are flighty and likely to change their minds, and boyish because love is irrational
5.
The Death of Marat
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The Death of Marat is a painting by Jacques-Louis David of the murdered French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat. It is one of the most famous images of the French Revolution, David was the leading French painter, as well as a Montagnard and a member of the revolutionary Committee of General Security. The painting shows the radical journalist lying dead in his bath on 13 July 1793 after his murder by Charlotte Corday. Painted in the months after Marats murder, it has described by T. J. Clark as the first modernist painting, for the way it took the stuff of politics as its material. Marat was one of the leaders of the Montagnards, the radical faction ascendant in French politics during the Reign of Terror until the Thermidorian Reaction, Charlotte Corday was a Girondin from a minor aristocratic family and a political enemy of Marat who blamed him for the September Massacre. She gained entrance to Marats rooms with a note promising details of a ring in Caen. Marat suffered from a condition that caused him to spend much of his time in his bathtub. Corday fatally stabbed Marat, though she did not attempt to flee and she was later tried and executed for the murder. As well as being the leading French painter of his generation, David was a prominent Montagnard, and he was also on the Committee of Public Instruction. For example, the painting contains no sign of his problems, his skin appears clean. David, however, drew other details from his visit to Marats residence the day before the assassination, the rug, the papers. David promised his peers in the National Convention that he would later depict their murdered friend invocatively as écrivant pour le bonheur du peuple, the Death of Marat is designed to commemorate a personable hero. Although the name Charlotte Corday can be seen on the held in Marats left hand. Close inspection of this painting shows Marat at his last breath, therefore, David intended to record more than just the horror of martyrdom. The Death of Marat has often compared to Michelangelos Pietà. Note the elongated arm hanging down in both works, David admired Caravaggios works, especially Entombment of Christ, which mirrors The Death of Marats drama and light. David sought to transfer the sacred qualities long associated with the monarchy and he painted Marat, martyr of the Revolution, in a style reminiscent of a Christian martyr, with the face and body bathed in a soft, glowing light. As Christian art had done from its beginning, David also played with multileveled references to classical art, widely admired during the Terror whose leaders ordered several copies of the original work, The Death of Marat slowly ceased to be frontpage history after Robespierres overthrow and execution
6.
The Tennis Court Oath (David)
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Political reversals and financial difficulties meant that David was never able to finish the canvas, which measures 66 by 101.2 cm and is now in the Musée national du Château de Versailles. All the deputies are shown looking at Bailly, as a device to show their unanimous support of him, the only man to refuse to take the oath, Martin-Dauch, is shown in the lower right hand corner and provides a counterpoint to the general enthusiasm. David also drew all the faces in detail so that every figure was recognisable, above are large windows with smiling figures of the public. In the 18th century, an oath had a value and guaranteed a person would be faithful to their word. During the French Revolution, collective oaths like the court oath were considered as a factor in national unity. Davids painting also portrays the monk Dom Gerle alongside the Protestant pastor Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne, the wind blowing through the windows and billowing the curtains also symbolises the wind of Revolution blowing through France. The first engravings showing The Tennis Court Oath only appeared in 1790 and he exhibited a pen and brown ink drawing of his planned painting in the Louvre in 1791 but did not have enough money to follow it through as the subscription had only had a 10% take-up. The National Constituent Assembly thus decided to fund the work from the public treasury instead, David set up a studio in the former Les Feuillants Convent to hold sittings for the deputies, then meeting in the nearby salle du Manège. A large number of deputies to the National Constituent Assembly had been identified as enemies of the Government of Public Safety, David therefore left the work unfinished and the subscribers reclaimed their engraving from him. Davids 1810 The Distribution of the Eagle Standards and his 1814 Leonidas at Thermopylae were directly inspired by The Tennis Court Oath, the work was also reprised and adapted by several artists from the late 18th century onwards. These included Auguste Couder in 1848 and Luc-Olivier Merson in 1883, in 1820, David ceded the engraving rights on Jean Pierre Marie Jazets engraving of The Tennis Court Oath to Daniel Isoard de Martouret. The canvas itself was acquired in 1836 by the royal museums for the Louvre. Analysis of Davids engraving identifying the deputies in the foreground Le Serment du Jeu de paume, quand David récrit lHistoire on the château de Versailles site
7.
Napoleon Crossing the Alps
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Napoleon Crossing the Alps is the title given to the five versions of an oil on canvas equestrian portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte painted by the French artist Jacques-Louis David between 1801 and 1805. In the spring of 1800 he led the Reserve Army across the Alps through the Great St. Bernard Pass, the Austrian forces, under Michael von Melas, were laying siege to Masséna in Genoa and Napoleon hoped to gain the element of surprise by taking the trans-Alpine route. By the time Napoleons troops arrived, Genoa had fallen, but he pushed ahead, the Reserve Army fought a battle at Montebello on 9 June before eventually securing a decisive victory at the Battle of Marengo. The installation of Napoleon as First Consul and the French victory in Italy allowed for a rapprochement with Charles IV of Spain, while talks were underway to re-establish diplomatic relations, a traditional exchange of gifts took place. Charles received Versailles-manufactured pistols, dresses from the best Parisian dressmakers, jewels for the queen, in return Napoleon was offered sixteen Spanish horses from the royal stables, portraits of the king and queen by Goya, and the portrait that was to be commissioned from David. The French ambassador to Spain, Charles-Jean-Marie Alquier, requested the painting from David on Charles behalf. The portrait was to hang in the Royal Palace of Madrid as a token of the new relationship between the two countries, David, who had been an ardent supporter of the Revolution but had transferred his fervour to the new Consulate, was eager to undertake the commission. A fifth version was produced by David and remained in his various workshops until his death, the original painting remained in Madrid until 1812, when it was taken by Joseph Bonaparte after his abdication as King of Spain. He took it with him when he went into exile in the United States, the painting was handed down through his descendants until 1949, when his great grandniece, Eugenie Bonaparte, bequeathed it to the museum of the Château de Malmaison. The version produced for the Château de Saint-Cloud from 1801 was removed in 1814 by the Prussian soldiers under von Blücher who offered it to Frederick William III King of Prussia and it is now held in the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin. The 1803 version was delivered to Milan but confiscated in 1816 by the Austrians, however, the people of Milan refused to give it up and it remained in the city until 1825. It was finally installed at the Belvedere in Vienna in 1834 and it remains there today, now part of the collection of the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. The version kept by David until his death in 1825 was exhibited at the Bazar Bonne-Nouvelle in 1846, in 1850 it was offered to the future Napoleon III by Davids daughter, Pauline Jeanin, and installed at the Tuileries Palace. In 1979, it was given to the museum at the Palace of Versailles, the Spanish ambassador, Ignacio Muzquiz, informed Napoleon and asked him how he would like to be represented. Napoleon initially requested to be reviewing the troops but eventually decided on a scene showing him crossing the Alps. In reality the crossing had been made in fine weather and Bonaparte had been led across by a guide a few days after the troops, few drafts and preparatory studies were made, contrary to Davids normal practice. The lack of studies may in part be explained by Bonapartes refusal to sit for the portrait. He had sat for Gros in 1796 on the insistence of Joséphine de Beauharnais, do you think that the great men of Antiquity for whom we have images sat
8.
Brussels
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Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels
9.
The Coronation of Napoleon
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The Coronation of Napoleon is a painting completed in 1807 by Jacques-Louis David, the official painter of Napoleon, depicting the coronation of Napoleon I at Notre-Dame de Paris. The painting has imposing dimensions, as it is almost 10 metres wide by a little over 6 metres tall, Jacques-Louis David started work on 21 December 1805 in the former chapel of the College of Cluny, near the Sorbonne, which served as a workshop. Assisted by his student Georges Rouget, he put the finishing touches in January 1808, from 7 February to 21 March 1808, the work was exhibited at the Salon annual painting display in 1808, and it was presented to the Salon decennial prize competition in 1810. The painting remained the property of David until 1819, when it was transferred to the Royal Museums, then, it was installed in the Chamber Sacre of the museum of the historical Palace of Versailles on the orders of King Louis-Philippe. In 1889, the painting was transferred to the Louvre from Versailles, David was commissioned by American entrepreneurs to paint a full size replica, in 1808, immediately after the release of the original. He began work that year, painting it from memory, but didnt finish until 1822, the replica was eventually returned to France in 1947, to the originals place in the Palace of Versailles. The painting is a subject of The Public Viewing Davids Coronation at the Louvre, the composition is organised around several axes, and incorporates the rules of neoclassicism. One axis is that passes through the cross and has a vertical orientation. All eyes are turned towards Napoleon, who is the center of the composition, a diagonal line runs from the pope to the empress. Napoleon I, is standing, dressed in robes similar to those of Roman emperors. In the actual painting it is possible to see the outline of what was painted, Napoleon holding the crown above his own head. Joséphine de Beauharnais, is kneeling in a position, as called for in the French Civil Code. She received the crown from the hands of her husband, not the pope and her robe is decorated with silk according to a contemporary cartoon by Jean-Francois Bony. Maria Letizia Ramolino, mother of Napoleon, was placed in the stands by the painter and she occupies a place more important than the pope. Actually, she did not attend the ceremony to protest the friction of Napoleon with his brothers Lucien, Napoleons father, Charles Bonaparte, died in 1785. Maria Letizia asked the painter to give it a place of honour, Louis Bonaparte, who at the beginning of the empire received the title of grand constable, King of Holland, in 1806. He married Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Josephine, Joseph Bonaparte, who was not invited and did not attend because of an argument with Napoleon. This is why his mother did not attend either, after the coronation, he received the title of imperial prince
10.
Oath of the Horatii
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Oath of the Horatii, is a large painting by the French artist Jacques-Louis David painted in 1784 and now on display in the Louvre in Paris. The painting immediately became a success with critics and the public. It depicts a scene from a Roman legend about a dispute between two warring cities, Rome and Alba Longa, and stresses the importance of patriotism and masculine self-sacrifice for ones country. Instead of the two cities sending their armies to war, they agree to choose three men from each city, the victor in that fight will be the victorious city. From Rome, three brothers from a Roman family, the Horatii, agree to end the war by fighting three brothers from a family of Alba Longa, the Curiatii. The three brothers, all of whom appear willing to sacrifice their lives for the good of Rome, are shown saluting their father who holds their swords out for them, of the three Horatii brothers, only one shall survive the confrontation. Aside from the three brothers depicted, David also represents, in the right corner, a woman crying whilst sitting down. She is Camilla, a sister of the Horatii brothers, who is betrothed to one of the Curiatii fighters. The principal sources for the story behind Davids Oath are the first book of Livy which was elaborated by Dionysius in book 3 of his Roman Antiquities, however, the moment depicted in Davids painting is his own invention. It grew to be considered a paragon of neoclassical art, the painting increased Davids fame, allowing him to take on his own students. In 1774, David won the Prix de Rome with his work Érasistrate découvrant la cause de la maladie d’Antiochius and this allowed him to stay five years in Rome as a student from the French government. There he met Pecoul, contractor for the buildings, and Pecouls daughter. The kings assistant, Charles-Claude Flahaut de la Billaderie, commissioned Oath of the Horatii with the intention that it be an allegory about loyalty to the state, nevertheless, David departed from the agreed-upon scene, painting this scene instead. The painting was not completed in Paris, but rather in Rome, ultimately, Davids picture manifests a progressive outlook, deeply influenced by Enlightenment ideas, that eventually contributed to the overthrow of the monarchy. As the French Revolution approached, paintings increasingly referred to the loyalty to the rather than the family or the church. Painted five years before the Revolution, the Oath of the Horatii reflects the tensions of the period. In 1789, David painted The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, as revolution in France loomed, paintings urging loyalty to the state rather than to clan or clergy abounded. Although it was painted nearly four years before the revolution in France, in the painting, the three brothers express their loyalty and solidarity with Rome before battle, wholly supported by their father
