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Europe 1300 - 1800
Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 10
Lesson 2: Neoclassicism- Neoclassicism, an introduction
- David, Oath of the Horatii
- David, Oath of the Horatii
- David's Oath of the Horatii Quiz
- Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates
- David, The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons
- David, Study for The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons
- Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Marat
- David and The Death of Marat
- David, The Intervention of the Sabine Women
- David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps
- Kauffmann, Cornelia Presenting Her Children as Her Treasures
- Girodet, The Sleep of Endymion
- Marie-Guillemine Benoist, Portrait of Madeleine
- Canova, Repentant Magdalene
- Canova, Paolina Borghese as Venus Victorius
- Vignon, Church of La Madeleine
- Soufflot, The Panthéon, Paris
- David, The Emperor Napoleon in his Study at the Tuileries
- J. Schul, Portrait of a Lady Holding an Orange Blossom
- Neoclassicism
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David, The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons
Jacques-Louis David, The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, 1789, oil on canvas, 10' 7-1/8" x 13' 10-1/8" or 3.23 x 4.22m (Musée du Louvre, Paris) Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- Is this about the Brutus that assassainated Julius Caeser or the earlier one he was named after who overthrew the last Roman king?(16 votes)
- What is a lictor?(7 votes)
- In ancient Rome, the lictors were the officers who attended the consul or other magistrate and executed sentences on offenders, like the sons of Brutus that we see in the painting by David. In essence they were bodyguards or enforcers.(6 votes)
- What does the person in the background covered in blue drapery have to do with the rest of the painting? Who is she or he?(7 votes)
- She is a symbol of the anguish and unbearable to the evil acts that men did at this time. She just ties in the over-all emotion and directs your eyes towards the rest of the painting. :)(5 votes)
- Is that a figure in the far right with a (blue) towel over their head? What is going on in that part of the painting?(4 votes)
- It is clearly a person with cloth draped over their face. Look at this close up image if you're dubious: http://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucker/5772565540/in/photostream/(4 votes)
- What did Brutis do that ended up killing his son?(3 votes)
- the story is not what Brutus did, but what his son did (betrayed the republic). Brutus, enforcing the republican ideal, took the action that his ideology demanded, that traitors, even if they be of one's own blood, should be killed. The son died, but the family was destroyed (you see that in the mother and daughters). Brutus was "right" by his ideology, but he was very, very wrong in terms of being a human being. I see the light on the women as a judgment on one who chooses to sit in darkness.(4 votes)
Video transcript
SPEAKER 1: We're at
the Musee du Louvre, and we're looking at
Jacques-Louis David's Brutus and his Sons. SPEAKER 2: This is one of my
favorite paintings by David, and dates to the very year of
the revolution itself, 1789. SPEAKER 1: And it
was tied beautifully to the revolutionary
sentiment in subject. SPEAKER 2: Brutus has led the
revolution against the kings in Rome. This is in ancient Rome. Brutus has discovered that his
sons have committed treason in attempting to restore
the monarchy to Rome. SPEAKER 1: So
Brutus, as judge, has taken the extraordinary step
of sentencing his own family to death for their
treason, putting the state above his own personal
family, above his own feelings, above his own needs. SPEAKER 2: And that's
the thing that we also see in the Oath of the Horatii. The triumph of reason, of
being moral and virtuous, over personal feelings
and personal priorities. SPEAKER 1: But this
is also a painting about the cost of that. It's not blind patriotism. There is a true emotional
power and cost there, and it's tragic. SPEAKER 2: And Brutus
sits in shadow, under a statue of Rome,
holding this edict in his hand. His feet crossed beneath
him, his hand up. He's obviously in thought. His back turned to
the body of his sons, who we see being
carried in behind him. While his wife and
children, who form the other half of the
composition, call out, fully illuminated, shielding
their eyes, passing out. They can't believe
what Brutus has done. SPEAKER 1: Brutus is quiet,
he's calm, he's resigned, even if there is a kind
of deep tragedy there. The women on the other
side and the children have given in to their emotions. SPEAKER 2: In many
ways, this fits in with ideas that were
around during the revolution that only men really have
the capability of sacrificing for the state, of
being true citizens, because only men could
rise above their emotions and their personal concerns
to think about these greater goods. SPEAKER 1: That
stoicism seems to be echoed in the very
architecture of this space. We have a fairly complex
classical environment-- Doric columns, the
most pared down. And this is the truest
of Greek architecture. But then that's softened,
especially in the sphere of the women, in that that's
draped with cloth, the softer material. This is a painting
that's clearly informed by David's research
into classical architecture, into classical furnishings. SPEAKER 2: And the figures
themselves resemble ancient Greek and
Roman sculpture, the way that the drapery
clings to their bodies. The importance of
anatomy here is so clear. Of a clarity of space,
of a clarity of line. The colors are subdued, but the
light comes in really strongly and illuminates these figures. And we have dramatic,
powerful gestures. And you're right. This is sacrifice and
virtue, but simultaneously the terrible emotional
cost of that, not just for Brutus's
family, but for Brutus, too. And it's fascinating to
me that this painting was made the very year
of the revolution, because it seems to
speak to the virtues that were required for
the revolution. The idea of sacrificing
for the greater good. The idea that the revolution
brings in ideals of equality before the law. So that even though
Brutus is the leader, he's not going to
excuse his sons. SPEAKER 1: Tragically,
the revolution would turn against its own sons. And this becomes
almost a foreshadowing of what will happen. Of course, in that case,
you have the excesses of Robespierre and others,
where the virtues that are expressed in this
early painting by David are turned away from. In some tragic
way, this painting does foreshadow the
collapse and, in a sense, failure of the revolution.