The Influence of the Ideas of the French Revolution upon the Arts

The French Revolution brought about a very sharp and rapid change from the softer and more peaceful Rococo style to the Neoclassical style. Obviously, the French Revolution was the subject of many a French painting at the time. The Revolution was also an accumulation of Enlightenment ideals, displaying the reactions to the times, and aggravations with the ruling powers. The Neoclassical style often used revolutionary new ideas about human rights, like those that were so turbulently changed in France. They portrayed stern figures, and often heroic characters, both current and of antiquity. The much loved historical Greek and Roman mythology and stories were often portrayed because of the supposed ethical superiority of the past, the same morals related to the artists’ own times. Artists were also fond of martyrs, painting those that gave up themselves in self-sacrifice or denial. This was, in a way, the attitude towards the revolution, to give up oneself for the betterment of the society. Unfortunately, reality is much harsher than the expected glorious battle for the rights of man against the unfair first and second estates.

Jacques-Louis David’s “The Intervention of the Sabine Women” was created in 1799 and displayed in the Louvre. David had begun working on the idea for the painting in 1796 while he was imprisoned in the Luxembourg Palace, a result of his support of Robespierre during the Reign of Terror.
At first glance, one would assume that the image is a reflection of the turbulent and violent struggles the artist had witnessed in his participation in the Reign of Terror. The meaning is actually the opposite. It is a call for peace and love during a time of violent upheaval. The painting is based on the Roman story of the women of Sabine who were taken by the Romans, who were greatly in need of more women at the time to repopulate. They kidnapped women from Sabine, and thus the Sabines retaliated with war. However; the daughter of the Sabine leader was married to the Roman leader. She is depicted here with her children, caught between her father, Tatius, and husband, Romulus, to preventing them from fighting. The inclusion of children asks the audience to recall whom the fighting will affect most of all, and the similarly rounded shields that Romulus and Tatius display link them together as family because they both come from similar backgrounds and fight for the same end, much like the warring French people.

I had the good fortune to visit the Louvre last summer and this was one of the pieces that left a lasting impression on me. The paintings themselves were huge floor to ceiling masterpieces that could stretch the entire length of a large room.
The scene depicted is of the coronation of Emperor Napoleon I and Empress Josephine in the Notre Dame cathedral. Officially titled “Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I and Coronation of the Empress Josephine” by its creator, Jacques-Louis David, it was commissioned by Napoleon himself to celebrate his consecration. David had originally wanted to paint the event as it had happened, with napoleon crowning himself to avoid pledging obedience to either the Pope or the Holy Roman Empire. David realized that immortalizing this metaphorical slap across the face would not be the best of ideas, and instead painted Napoleon crowning the Empress, while the pope stands nearby and blesses her, rather than Napoleon placing the crown upon his own head.
The event in and of itself was revolutionary; the Emperor refused subjugation to the church and instead pledged loyalty to the state. Though David’s portrayal lessens the blow, the reality of the event was that the church had finally fallen so far from power in France that Napoleon could refuse to answer to God, and instead rule by his own power.

Above is an English production of the French play “Tartuffle,” written by Molière. Molière had the unique privilege of writing plays that were performed for the elite of Paris, and the king himself. “Tartuffle” was first performed for the royal court in Versailles in 1664. The play asks the question, “…what happens when a sovereign authority (here, in a private household) is somehow incapable of exercising sovereign authority?” (Baker). The head of the household is representative of a king, and in the play he abdicates his position to let someone he plucked off the streets, Tartuffle, rule for him. The problem comes when Tartuffle takes the power he has been given and uses it to evict the former head of house and his family. The story is a metaphor for bad kingship, saying that a king that hands over his power to councilors is responsible for transferring their responsibilities and the actions of their replacement.
This play, though it was created a few years before the revolution, embodied many of the problems recognized with the monarchy. Molière questions the divine right to rule that King Louis XIV and his predecessors claimed. He says that despite the king’s god given right to rule he still needs to make sounds judgements, answer for his actions, and listen to the ideas of others. By suggesting that the king needs to be prudent and wise in his rule and never shirk his duty, Molière promoted Enlightenment ideals, and preached controversial ideology directly to the king and court. His ideas, though subdued, were integral in bringing about Enlightenment ideals to France, which would eventually lead to the public acting upon those new ideals, bringing about the French Revolution.

Works Cited
Baker, Lyman Allen. “Tartuffe as Political Parable: Reason, Laughter, and Responsible Authority in an Age of Absolutism.” Introduction to Western Humanities: Baroque & Enlightenment. N.p., 07 Dec. 1996. Web. 01 July 2015. <http://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english287/sg-Moliere-Tartuffe-politics.htm&gt;.

David, Jacques-Louis. The Coronation of Napoleon. 1807. Painting. The Louvre.

David, Jacques-Louis. The Intervention of the Sabine Women. 1799. Painting. The Louvre.

“DAVID, Jacques-Louis.” Web Gallery of Art, Image Collection, Virtual Museum, Searchable Database of European Fine Arts (1000-1900). N.p., n.d. Web. 01 July 2015. <http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?%2Fhtml%2Fd%2Fdavid_j%2F4%2F405david.html&gt;.

“Jacques-Louis David’s “The Intervention of the Sabine Women”” Art and Coin TV Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 July 2015. <http://www.artandcointv.com/blog/2012/01/jacques-louis-david%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cthe-intervention-of-the-sabine-women%E2%80%9D/&gt;.

Moliere, Jean-Baptise Poquelin. “Tartuffe.” The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed. Maynard Mack. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1995. 307 -356.

Price, Lindsay. “Issue 82 Molière‎ and 17th Century French Theatre.” Theaterfolk. N.p., Aug. 2013. Web. 01 July 2015. <https://www.theatrefolk.com/spotlights/moliere-and-17th-century-french-theatre&gt;.