An outline summary and links to each of the articles in this series.
Guérin
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.
A little of the history of Egypt, from Books of the Dead in 1300 BCE, up to Napoleon’s campaign there between 1798-1801.
After his death, over 1500 of his pastels were sold, the great majority of which have since disappeared. Here are some of the finest of the survivors.
The story of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, King of Mycenae and commander of the Greek forces in the Trojan War, who was murdered by his wife.
The Eclectic Light Company 