Helen Saved By Venus From The Wrath Of Aeneas

When it comes to Greek mythology, I simply can’t get enough of the epic stories of Greek heroes and gods. I’m always fascinated at the creative stories the Greek have conjured up such as mighty heroes, and of multiple gods that represent different aspects of human life (love, theater, wine, etc.). Jacques Sablet’s Helen Saved by Venus from the Wrath of Aeneas, painted in 1779 in Switzerland, depicts the events of the fall of Troy during the Trojan War. After witnessing the king of Troy, Priam, die right in front of him, Aeneas, son of the goddess Venus and King Anchises, was struck with painful memories of his own father's death and was filled with emotions. As he observed the burning city of Troy, he looked back to find Helen cowering behind
The Enlightenment brought in an age of a new generation of thinkers and innovators that brought great change in political and economic systems of the 18th century. Critical thinking became the norm and allowed many Europeans to think more about the world and humankind. Art was affected as well in the fact that since the enlightenment brought upon the the idea of a true and civilized society, living patriotically and rationally. This brought upon the creation of the art-style known as neoclassicism. Neoclassicism incorporated ancient Greek and roman style art into 18th century art since ancient art styles coincided with enlightenment ideas such as civil duty and virtue, liberty, morality, patriotism, and sacrifice. Sablet’s originally created this artwork probably to portray those certain enlightenment ideas such as civil duty and patriotism. Aeneas was filled with rage because the city he had lived and fought for is now in the brink of ruin. When Aeneas saw Helen, he immediately saw the one and only catalyst that lead toward Troy’s destruction. Sablet wanted to show Aeneas being patriotic to his city and trying to kill the one thing that brought destruction to Troy. But Aeneas was stopped by his mother Venus and freed from his blinding rage. Sablet probably wanted to show that being patriotic doesn't’ mean that you must be blinded by it and kill or destroy anything
This led to the less detailed character models and features the painting portrays. The artwork seems to use shallow space, with everything happening in the foreground and having one thing happen at the background. Although the artwork doesn’t use good clarity to present the characters in the painting, Sablet does use an elaborate way of force in making the artwork look more dynamic. Aeneas’s cape looks as if its fluttering towards Helen as he charges his attack and Helen seems to be still falling down onto the ground. There is also balanced in lighting since nothing in the painting is too dark or too light. The characters are proportional to each other, no elongated figures or unproportional features on any of the characters. the central figure of the painting seems to be Aeneas since Venus is pointing to him and Helen is looking at him, as well as her arm that is being extended towards the ground is angled to a position that allows it to point towards Aeneas. Perhaps since the painting is of a neoclassic style, Sablet wanted Aeneas to be the central figure of the ideals of patriotism and morality. This artwork nicely portrays neoclassicism when it was the new style during the 18th century. this painting was actually ten years before the French revolution where neoclassicism is used to its fullest. This painting would have helped Switzerland understand the ideas of the revolutionists since most of the more ideal