Neo Classical Art Style Analysis

What makes a painting iconic? For the most part it’s the buyer, which explains why Jackson Pollock’s number 5 is worth 250 million dollars. However, normally paintings with history and a story behind them are what make them iconic, and nothing has a bigger influence than historic art. What is it about historical leaders that people admire so much? Why after so many years people still fantasies about? Historical art has great influence on societies. It has not only been used to incite revolutions against oppressors, but to also maintain oppressing governments in power. My analysis will concentrate mostly on the similarities and differences of “George Washington Crossing the Delaware” and “Napoleon Crossing the Alps”, two very influential paintings
in terms of defining political power.
Jacques-Louis David (30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, a style of rigorous contours, sculpted forms, and polished surfaces. He painted in the service of royalty, radical revolutionaries, and an emperor; although his political allegiances shifted, he remained faithful to the tenets of Neoclassicism, which he transmitted to a generation of students. His major works include Napoleon Crossing the Alps, Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries and the Death of Socrates. His style is often discussed in contrast with other French painters of the time who were more interested in drama, motion, movement and loose brushwork- they were the Romantics like Theodore Gericault. David's style is linear (as opposed to painterly) and his palette is cool; lighting is used to dramatically enhance his subject matter.(cite)
Jacques was a neoclassical painter, a style that was born in the mid-1700s.
The style, originally from Rome, but its popularity exploded in France, as a generation of French and other European art students finished their training and returned from Rome to their home countries with newly-rediscovered Greco-Roman (Classical) ideals. As a testimony of the significant influence the Greeks and Romans had on Western civilization, interestingly the term itself is a merger of words derived from both ancient languages spoken by them; neos (Greek for “new”), classicus (Latin for “first class”) and ismos (Greek for “doctrine” or “ideology”). (cite)Neoclassical art style was widely adopted and popularized by French artists, since France was the center of culture and art in Europe at that time. The art movement was not limited to painting and sculpture; it was also manifested in literature, architecture and music, embraced by artists all over Europe and America. Born on the eve of the Age of Revolution, it reflected the intellectual, social and political changes of that period and it “became the semiofficial voice of the French
Revolution.”(cite) Some characteristics of neoclassical art (paintings and sculptures) were serious, unemotional, and sternly heroic. Neoclassical painters depicted subjects from Classical literature and history, as used in earlier Greek art and Republican Roman art, using sombre colours with occasional brilliant highlights, to convey moral narratives of self-denial and self-sacrifice fully in keeping with the supposed ethical superiority of Antiquity. (cite) Furthermore, founders and famous artists of Neoclassicism include the German portraitist and historical painter Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-79), the Frenchman Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809) (who taught J-L David), the Italian portrait painter Pompeo Batoni (1708-87), the Swiss painter Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807), the French political artist Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), and his pupils Jean-Germain Drouais (1763-88).(cite) Jacques David’s most famous painting was commissioned by Spanish king Charles IV as a grand gesture of goodwill toward Napoleon, his powerful and intimidating neighbor. King Charles commissioned David to commemorate his daring Crossing of the ALPS. The Crossing of the St. Bernard Pass that had allowed the French to surprise the Austrian army and win victory at the Battle of Marengo on June 14, 1800. Although Napoleon had crossed the ALPS on a mule and did not actually lead his troops over the ALPS, but he followed a couple of days later. He requested that he be portrayed "calm upon a fiery steed" while leading them to battle. David combined history painting and portraiture to create a heroic image of Napoleon scaling the ALPS. Unfazed by all challenges posed by man or nature, the general charges onward with all his energies directed toward the glorious future. In the background, tiny infantrymen struggle to drag cannons up a rocky mountainside. As a way of telling the viewer Napoleon could have done everything himself. However, to remind us that Napoleon was only the third general in history to cross the ALPS, David inscribed the names Bonaparte, Hannibal, and Karolus Magnus (Charlemagne) on the rocks at the lower left, linking Napoleon to his historical predecessors and distancing him from more recent French leaders. While obviously making his name the biggest. David's image immediately became the symbol of Napoleonic power. Napoleonic power otherwise known as propaganda lied with its ability to reach peoples of all backgrounds, and to affect all aspects of society, from information to education, from religion to arts and entertainment.
Napoleons propaganda was created to target everyone. For instance, the peasant class who did not necessarily read newspapers were still exposed to the patriotic message of their local clergy, whilst the educated classes who did read papers remained continuously exposed to misinformation even in their leisure time, whether at the theatre or art exhibitions. This enabled Napoleon to strengthen his dictatorship in several ways. Firstly, he did this by portraying the self-contradictory image that he was a great, superior being whilst also a man from and chosen by the people. As a witness of the time pointed “Every painting […] seems to celebrate [Napoleon’s] glory”, and many artists like David, Gros, Gerard, Girodet and Ingres contributed to the artistic heritage of Napoleon for a profit of course (cite).
The Napoleon Crossing the ALPS artwork was used as propaganda, and the meaning is shown by various colors and other symbols in the painting.
Napoleon wore a red coat on top of a white horse. The man who sits astride the white horse is an impressive figure. The people honor him as a leader and warrior. While he is capable of making war, he comes initially as a man of peace. That was the mythology for white horses at the time. Also his red coat symbolizes a warrior fighting for his people leading them to greatness, while also craving his name in history higher than any other French military hero. As he points to the heavens emphasizing he is just doing his heavenly right. The painting was modeled after David’s sons who stood in for Napoleon, dressed up in the uniform and perched on top of a ladder. This probably accounts for the youthful physique of the figure. Napoleon refused to pose, arguing that: “Nobody knows if the portraits of the great men resemble them, it’s enough that their genius lives there.”(cite) The painting today is located at Napoleons last residence Chateau de
malmaison.