Lesson 3 - Schama - David

David was a painter who became a revolutionary painter of the people. David was a outcast in society, at a young age he was involved in an accident that left his face marked and swollen enabling him to speak. (The movie shows a guy that looks like the Joker) This deformity did not allow him to be accepted into society quickly. Schama explains David in a way more focused on his recognized era instead of his beginning years. During the years of the French Revolution David became a liberal painter. One who spoke through his art in lieu of his speech impediment. One of his first public paintings appeared in the Luve, Paris, France. This painting described the country in crisis and the aid to help it.

David - Oath of the Horatii

David next large revolutionary drawing was one showed in my second post this week. The meetings of nobles, clergy and commoners without the kings permission known as the Tennis Court Oath. The drawing later to become a painting was never finished, individuals at the meeting were later killed.

A painting that I found profound and had very little obvious expression was one illustrating the massacre of July 14th, the beheading of the governor with a fruit knife (painful much?)

David, Jacques-Louis

The photo shows Brutus ordering the execution of his sons for plotting a monarchy, the mother shows emotion as she sees her headless son being carried away. Brutus has an emotionless face until you look at his feet. His feet are twitchy, showing the thoughts that are in his head. 

David would later allow his liberal artwork ban him from France. During the revolution Marat's death needed to be moralized, a showing to the people his death and meaning. Marat was a individual of the commoners who pointed out any person who did not support the new government solely by beheading them. 

Death of Marat - David

David drew his friend in a fictional sense. A body with color of stone, a delicate wound. This drawing wants the people to believe in the cause, that Marat was a person of the people. The box says, he was one of you; the poor, the suffering. The letter in his hand makes him a victim of his kindness, the letter on the box is from a widow and Marat is sending her money. David made Marat out as a godly figure. 

The people saw through this propaganda and banished this painting as well as David from France. 

David was a tyrant of the arts. Moral reeducation is the fullest form of art, David accomplished this idea.