Jacques-Louis David - Delphi Complete Works of Jacques-Louis David (Illustrated)

Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) Contents Delphi Classics 2017 Version 1 Masters of Art Series Jacques-Louis David By Delphi Classics, 2017

However, when he was nine years old, his father was killed in a duel and his mother decided to leave him in the charge of his wealthy architect uncles. He received an excellent education at the Collge des Quatre-Nations, University of Paris, though David was never to be a good student. Following a fencing contest, he suffered a facial injury that impeded his speech for the rest of his life. He was often preoccupied with drawing, neglecting his studies. He covered his notebooks with drawings and is reported to have said, I was always hiding behind the instructors chair, drawing for the duration of the class. In short time, he nurtured ambitions to become a painter, yet his uncles and mother wanted him to be an architect.

Eventually, he overcame their opposition and secured a place under the tutelage of Franois Boucher (17031770), the leading painter of the time, who was also a distant relative. Boucher was a painter of the Rococo style characterised by a more jocular, florid and graceful approach to the Baroque. Rococo art was ornate and employed light colours, asymmetrical designs, curves and prominent use of gold. Unlike the political Baroque, the Rococo utilised playful and witty themes. Nevertheless, tastes were changing and fashion was now giving way to a more classical style. Boucher decided to reassign Davids tutelage, sending him instead to his friend, Joseph-Marie Vien (17161809), a painter that embraced the classical reaction to Rococo.

Under Viens guidance, David attended the Royal Academy, located in what is now the Louvre. David soon set his sights on winning the prestigious Prix de Rome, a prize awarded each year by the Academy, which would fund a three to five year stay in Rome, studying the Italian Renaissance masters at first hand. Each pensionnaire was lodged in the French Academys Roman outpost, which from the years 1737 to 1793 was the Palazzo Mancini in the Via del Corso. David competed for, and failed to win, the prize for three consecutive years contributing to the artists lifelong grudge against the institution. After his second loss in 1772, David went on a hunger strike, lasting two and a half days before the faculty encouraged him to continue painting. Confident he now had the support and backing needed to win the prize, he resumed his studies with fresh enthusiasm, only to fail to win the Prix de Rome again the following year, when he threatened to kill himself.

Finally, in 1774, David was awarded the Prix de Rome on the strength of his painting of Erasistratus Discovering the Cause of Antiochus Disease , a subject that was set by the judges. In October 1775 he made the journey to Italy with his mentor, Joseph-Marie Vien, recently appointed director of the French Academy at Rome. The winning entry, represented in the following plates, is a history painting inspired by an episode in Plutarchs Lives , concerning the Greek court physician Erasistratus (c. 304c. 250 BC), who served as royal physician under Seleucus I Nicator of Syria. Along with Herophilus, Erasistratus founded a school of anatomy in Alexandria, carrying out ground-breaking anatomical research.

He is credited for his description of the valves of the heart and for concluding that the heart was not the centre of sensations, but instead functioned as a pump. Erasistratus was among the first to distinguish between veins and arteries. Davids canvas tells the story of a famous event that involved the physician while working at the court of Seleucus. In his old age, the ruler of Syria had married Stratonice, the young and beautiful daughter of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and she had already borne him a child. Antiochus, Seleucus son, was suffering from a mysterious malady. In fact, he had fallen desperately in love with his stepmother, but did not disclose his passion, choosing instead to pine away in silence.

The physicians were unable to discover the cause of his illness and Erasistratus himself was at a loss at first, till, finding nothing amiss about his body, he began to suspect that it must be his mind that was affected. Erasistratus confirmed his conjecture when he observed that the skin of Antiochus grew hotter, his colour deeper and his pulse quicker whenever his mother-in-law came near him. Accordingly, Erasistratus told Seleucus that his sons disease was incurable, for he was in love and that it was impossible to gratify his passion. The king wondered what the obstacle could be and asked who the lady was. My wife, replied Erasistratus, after which Seleucus began to persuade him to give her up to his son. The physician asked him if he would do so himself if it were his wife that the prince was in love with.