A selection of his early paintings, and an account of the year he spent preparing and painting his masterwork, the Raft of the Medusa.
Guérin
Storm in the Bay of Biscay, a deep fake of 1808, a dedication for a wedding present, the Trojan Horse, and remarkable modern narratives.
Relative size can express relative importance, rather than giving a sense of depth. Although ancient tradition, it still appears in more modern paintings.
An outline summary and links to each of the articles in this series.
Driven by storms to the coast of North Africa, Aeneas and Dido fall in love, but he can’t stay and must move on in search of his destiny.
Tragedy for Agamemnon, who is murdered by his wife, and his son Orestes murdered her (his mother), her lover, their daughter and son.
Started training in 1815, first commission in 1819, set his sights on the Salon of 1822, and made his name with ‘The Barque of Dante’.
Overview of David’s Neoclassicism, his teacher Guérin, the influence of Constable and Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, his friends, and rival Ingres.
Hippolyta murdered for her girdle, Penthesilea killed by Achilles at Troy, Hippolyta abandoned by Theseus for Phaedra, and Thalestris impregnated by Alexander the Great.
The fictional Marcus Sextus, Napoleon pardoning the rebels of Cairo, and Narcissus where he shouldn’t be: disinformation in history painting.