The logic of an academic, retention of past models
The previous two conferences have demonstrated the function of state and doctrinaire neoclassical painting. The will of the reinvestment of antiquity to testify the size of an art of its time does not mean limiting the variation of subjects as well as invoices. Between the late eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century, painters from the academic history are multiple references while appropriating them and claiming a singularity. Despite its dogmatic foundations, the neoclassical will constantly mutate, each artist can despite a system of precise rules to express their individuality.
Tymoléon the Syracusan who bring foreigners 1796 Jean Joseph Taillasson.
Taillasson account with Jean Joseph Jacques Louis David among the best of Vienna. He fails, however, repeatedly Rome Prize competition and must resign from his charges in Italy in 1774. He stayed four years before returning to Paris. Approved at the Royal Academy in 1782 he was received as a painter of history two years later. His work is strongly influenced by the lessons of Vienna and the classical tradition of Poussin that he is a fervent admirer.
This table is presented in 1796 at the show. In the libretto of the show we note the record much longer than the title given to him today, "Timoleon who leads the Syracusans foreigners. The grand master, retired to Syracuse, lost sight [...] Then the Syracusans redoubled attention to it. He ammen foreigners who came to them: that he said, our benefactor, Our Father [...] This table at his feet five feet wide by 10 inches tall. "
First, we note that the length of the instructions and explanations are elements of mediation. The aim of these large arrays is to have a moral and didactic function whose libretto the show is the support. This work is the best of the political détente between the dictatorship of Robespierre and of Bonaparte by a glorification of the fervent Republican in the fourth century Greek who had to emigrate to Corinth, after killing his own brother in which a tyrant and germinated Sicily came to expel the young Dionysius of Syracuse and established throughout the whole island the democratic order.
The subject has become fashionable since the 1794 tragedy Timoleon was played. The part is prohibited by the Committee of General Security and the author Chenier forced to burn his manuscript. At the fall of Robespierre the play was resumed.
The organization has a general composition of figures placed in a frieze, linked to each other by gestures marked with arms that reach towards Timoleon, index raised to the sky of the Greek hero. Taillasson the precise nature of the scene by the Sicilian architecture and a barren landscape dominated by Mount Etna. The architecture of the Doric order replaces the Tuscan columns that can be seen on the sketch now preserved in Montauban. The organization frieze near the bas-relief carving and attention to detail as for shoes or even the seat of the main character, show the recovery of ancient and mostly plastic an organization only tour in the valuation of Timoleon. The critics were severe enough for the fabric although its neoclassical character focuses on drawing more than the colors. This seems to have struck and it says: "... [...] Though this Timoleon designed and draped with a purity does merit icy, both for color as for the facts. "
It is true that the drawing is the basis and the general organization of the composition of this picture. The effects of light on various drapes do not offer them a warm color, or variations of matter but an almost cold. The reference to the support by carving a design, offers almost the same heat architecture, drapery and flesh tones.
Taillasson Jean Joseph is the author of several books on aesthetics, some of which are written in verse: Danger the rules in the arts 1785; Observations on a few major painters in which one seeks to establish the distinctness of their talent with a specific life , 1807.
The episode chosen by Taillasson this void and no dramatic sense. The only expression is the head slightly raised the index and accompanying movement of the left arm of the hero. In the sketch of Montauban, Timoleon presents a face in profile significantly cut back on the columns. This variation to the final bill can be a little less cold. It may be emphasized that the organization of the composition makes great and virtually unique in the body and history. Even the architecture seems to comply with the dimensions of the work. The role of learning and teaching neoclassical painting led these artists in more references academic to an image frozen on the cold dogmatic.
Joseph Benedict Suvée with his picture on the Vestal Tuccia the screen filled with water to prove his innocence presents a neoclassical slightly softened well before the canvas Taillasson.
Jean Benedict Suvée obtained in 1771 the first Grand Prix with 's fight against Mars Minerva, tables disappointed that David will keep him in a persistent grudge. He is resident at the Academy of France in Rome from 1772 to 1778, he then spent in Naples, Malta, Venice and Sicily. Back in France it is approved in 1779 and received as a painter of history a year later. He is among the most history painters of his generation and as such will be appointed director of the Academy of France in Rome in 1792. The hostility of David and political events make it really take that position until 1801. He will oversee the move to the Villa Medici.
The artist produced several versions of the vestal. The young woman has to prove his innocence was a screen of water under the anxious eyes of the crowd, here personified by two women behind her. In 1785 we note in the booklet of the exhibition the presentation of a similar description to that of Tours. The painting was admired for its beautiful arrangement in composition and painted figures of your marble. One critic points out: "Mr. Suvée rivaled for harmony, purity of style and drape; person no longer approaches the simple graces of the antique." Indeed when we look at the strength and calmness that emerge from the face of this young woman, the drama of the scene is softened by the subtlety of the chromatic scale revealing shades of beige and white. Traits designer are accompanied with a fine writing brush. The balance of the composition is made by an invoice smooth, almost transparent showing a composition designed and managed. By studying the preparatory drawings and other compositions of the same theme, the focus of the artist is on the face and head of vestal virgins. Facial features to perfection almost sculptural in the way of styling hair in a bun defeated demonstrates a mastery of color and line. The drama is a bit more present than in Taillasson, the two young women behind the heroine looking up show drama and narrative tension. We find it in his eyes reddened and moist Tuccia. Yet the solemnity of laying and the appearance of marble expressionless face short-circuits a little bit of tension. The tight framing offers a hand to the viewer's imagination by an off-field indicated by following the three eyes that seem to converge towards the same point. The dark background of the three figures and cut back again in ancient sculptural model. The strength of the line is softened by the variations of brown and gray with white veil and clothing of the vestal. To emphasize its sculptural aspect we will notice that the light on the vestal is much colder as the two young women from the left. The positioning of the head in profile to three quarters in a virtual system assumes control of the kinetic representation of the face. The lack of any decorative element shows once again focusing on the body and history.
Morality is obviously at the heart of this iconography. The drama is carried by the narrative, but the moral figure of the vestal design seems to fit perfectly freezing the composition. No emphasis, everything seems to be in the reservoir that is in the pose, the expression in the palette as in the drawing. Suvée offers plastic treatment corresponding to the image of the story.
These two examples show how neoclassical artists reinvest deeply ancient sculptural style in composition. Despite some warming of the pallet in Suvée, aesthetics remains deeply cold. The supremacy of the design reflects the very functioning of the formation of these artists. The viewer of the time as can be seen in the criticism positive or negative, is primarily the "purity" of the transcript of Antiquity Contemporary painting in this model. Everything is about balance, to freeze into poses. In Suvée, drapes keep this thickness and a certain dynamic. Instead, we observe in Taillasson aspect of mineral processing clothes. Contemporary artists, their differences demonstrate the ability and willingness of these artists subjectivise this quote from antiquity. By slight thickening of the material draped Suvée, we can glimpse the reasons for shelving by Jacques Louis David and his dogma.
The moral functions are both in content and in form. The gestures are static, the term is fully contained. The primacy of drawing over the late eighteenth century is increasingly in the development and construction of large compositions. Even for a medium size table, the moral premium on feeling. The fine is higher than the taste. Despite this, each artist is regarded as an autonomous individual and especially identifiable. The choice of compositions and equilibria in a system that allows almost seems dictatorial personal expression.
The "noble simplicity and calm grandeur" of Winkelmann is felt perfectly in this internal voltage controlled the point of taking the mask of coldness. The vestal Tuccia is a virtuous example to glorify. Timoleon a hero of democracy ready to kill his brother for the greater good. For the young artists of the early nineteenth century, these models are still extremely strong. Yet one fact is artistic and political change that.
At the end of the empire, as the marshals of Napoleon, students surrounded him David, but are ready to betray him to retain their titles. And Jean Gros, faithful to the teachings of David painted Louis XVIII. After the defeat of Waterloo In 1815, Jacques Louis David was exiled by Louis XVIII, the academy, more than ever, claim to his doctrine. David's school hundreds of students had extended the model of its dogma in Europe. We learned to draw and paint from the ancient and the living model, for the transparent key. Officially, David is an outlaw. The head of the French school has no right to call France. Yet the bill porcelainée and bold palette of the old master continuously. It will result in a change of fashion subject to ridicule from the critics. From the sublime to the ridiculous of grace for the one step there.
The painted sketches of the painter Émile Signol as Scene ancient testify to this preservation of earlier models. Admitted to the School of Fine Arts in 1820, he became a pupil of John Major. Trained in history painting, he won the Prix de Rome in 1829 and the first grand prix in 1830. Like many of his classmates, stay between 1831 and 1835 at the Villa Medici is the revelation of Italian art.
The small antique table Scene is a sketch belonging to the years training of the artist in the competitions of drawings. Depicting a scene of a dying warrior, he witnessed the impact of the antique in the subjects. Other small oil Meleager taking up arms again in the solicitation of his wife was drawn for the Prix de Rome of 1830 which is Signol winner. Despite this being a sketch, we can discern the Doric columns framing the bay in which Cleopatra refers to her husband burned the walls. The work will Signol unanimously recognized by critics. Yet some lament the theatricality of the main figures. The sketch does not have the defects of the final work such as clothing of the wife. Here on the contrary, the vivacity of gesture of Cleopatra is underlined by sails and uniformly bright light. The distribution of characters is in line with the volume part of the rhythm of openings. Again for a theatrical actual heroes are put under a light much stronger and whiter. This creates a break between the foreground and background.
These sketches show a gesture and expressiveness of color and lighting effects which seemed inadequate with the transparency regime intended by Jacques Louis David. Yet the move to table charges chromatic bends in the drawing. The expression contained in these small paintings will be minimized in the end. From a dying warrior heroes taking up arms for the city, the themes are basically the old enrolled in the training of artists and their moral function. Emile Signol a long career, he died in 1892. Despite his training and academic awards, he will cross the century changes in themes and technical variations. These small painted sketches show artists who are technically trained to answer all requirements of an institution plastics and the public.
This capability and flexibility to allow everyone to be able once again despite individualized training that appears to enshrine in a single system. Beware of these shortcuts too fast on an academic frozen. Each student leaving the school of fine arts should be for a successful career, a personal synthesis of his teachings and his subjects. The neoclassical is not a single mold but a means of acquired techniques to respond to all requests. These artists are technicians, and can continually meet the demands of a government in power which they are dependent.
Jean-Baptiste Auguste Vinchon is traditionally presented as a student of Jacques Louis David, although his name does not appear on the list. It follows an academic who goes to Rome in 1816, where it binds with Ingres. Academic training made him an official painter. Executed around 1848, Louis-Philippe and the royal family visit the galleries of Versailles historical, is the sketch of the painting now preserved at Versailles. It shows the royal family stopped before the statue of Joan of Arc during a nocturnal visit. Sculpted by Marie d'Orleans, second daughter of Louis-Philippe, the last work of the princess died in 1839 at the age of 26 years. The work is part of Vinchon a production of King and his family in private moments and intended to give a human face to the regime and balance of representation by imagery official familiar. The homage of the royal family gathered at an artist who has disappeared is impregnated with a filial love combined with the devotion of the king to the historical figure of Joan of Arc. Interest The Maid of Orleans has never wavered and in the nineteenth century in particular from the restoration is experiencing a significant development. Faithful servant of God and the embodiment of courage, French, Jeanne has loyally defended the monarchy against a foreign power. Louis-Philippe could not fail to exploit the attachment of the French in character, in a continuing effort to pose as heir to the throne. The lights are out and break the marble range is dominated by black and red that suggest an intimate atmosphere devoid of formalism. The very purpose of the composition and testify about Vinchon a reorientation of themes and a larger discount.
The academic painters have always referent as the antiquity, but the rapprochement between artists and power resulted in them having to apply to all subjects of the elements of composition variants. The political developments will result in changes themes. Artists have continued to be taught where antiquity is at the heart of questions, but to maintain a moral impact and official they will have to alter or to work outside of the themes more to the great classical subjects.
conservation patterns of the past is always in an update. Drawing and sculpture are the very foundation of any academic training of an artist. Only students graduating from the School of Fine Arts, led the early years of their training to a principle of competition can live and be recognized for painting. Rome trip keeps his weight in training and in the quality of the artist. What changes between the late eighteenth century and the mid-nineteenth century are the theme and not plastics data. By having subjects that are close increasingly an everyday, academic painters demonstrate a capacity to adapt, even if the virtuous will paint for Jacques Louis David was the image of a revolutionary and imperial political system, for it Vinchon can be totally royalist. The beau ideal will be a little bit perverted. Chiaroscuro Suvée present in, or Signol Vinchon shows a weakening of the dogma and questioning where naturalism and models rejected by Jacques Louis David penetrate the paint.
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