Comparison of David's Oath of the Horatti and the Coronation of Napoleon



Comparison of David's Oath of the Horatti and the Coronation of Napoleon

Introduction

Neoclassical art is an artistic style that was flourished in Europe and America from about 1750 until early 1800. Neoclassical art is inspired by the Greco-Roman art; its main feature is balance and simplicity. The harmony of shapes and volumes, and the use of classical models as inspiration are basic pieces of this style. This style is very similar to the Renaissance, and this is also a source of inspiration for neoclassical artists. The finest example of neoclassicism in painting is of the French painter Jacques Louis David. Louis David was born in Paris on August 30, 1748 in a family of upper middle class. He studied at the Royal Academy with rococo painter JM Vien. In 1774 he won the Prix de Rome and traveled to Italy where he received a strong influence of classical art and the work of the seventeenth-century painter Nicolas Poussin. David quickly developed its own line of neoclassical drawing and his subjects were influenced from ancient sources and werr based on the forms and gestures of Roman sculpture (Tulard, 1997). David was the real founder of French Neoclassicism. His creations, pictorial features, polished statuary, and colors were largest paradigm in the eighteenth century. David is still considered as one of the most valued artists within the international art because of his momentous contributions to the field of arts.

He is the artist who raised the standard of Classicism to the highest point besides cultivating Classicism Realism tinged tactile and sensory. The classic art of David was inspired mostly by antique statuary. The subjects were borrowed, usually from ancient history in Mythology, Or Plutarch: they teached some great lesson of morality or patriotism. David was a prolific portraitist. Many modern critics consider his portraits as his best work, especially since it does not carry the burden of the moralizing messages and technique, often contrived, his works neoclassicists. The career of David represents the transition from the eighteenth century Rococo nineteenth century realism. Its cold and calculated neoclassicism exerted a great influence on his pupils Antoine-Jean Gros and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, and their heroic and patriotic themes set the stage for romance(Roth, 2004). He died on 29 December 1825 in Brussels. There are many works of David emanating a clear romantic pathos so anticipates Romanticism, but in this paper two of his works shall be discussed (David's Oath of the Horatti and the Coronation of Napoleon). His famous Oath of the Horatii (1784-1785, Louvre, Paris) was designed to proclaim the emergence of neoclassicism, and it highlights the drama in the use of light, idealized forms and gestural clarity. Between 1799 and 1815 David was the official painter of Napoleon Bonaparte and recorded the chronicles of his reign in larger works, like Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine (1805-1807, Louvre). After the fall of Napoleon, David went into exile in Brussels, where he would live ...