Jacques Louis David
The work I chose for this lesson is called The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, it was painted by Jacques Louis David in Paris in 1789, at the very center of the French Revolution in every way. At first, the government would not allow this painting to be hung because they thought it would “agitate” people. They had already not allowed David’s painting of Lavosier to be hung for the same reasons. However, when they did not allow this painting to be hung, it caused such public outrage that they Royals were forced to give in and hang the painting. In the painting is the Roman leader Brutus, grieving for his dead sons. He had ordered them killed because they attempted to overthrow the government, and he felt that their death was the only way to ensure democracy in the republic. He is obviously in a state of deep thought in the painting torn between his anguish for his dead sons, and the feeling that what he did was the best thing for his country. The distance between him and his wife and kids is also notable, I would think the distance is not just physical, but emotional, she must not have felt this was the way to solve the problem. This painting not only appealed to the French because of the content of this painting, but also because they got the rulers to give in on displaying it. I like how the artist used dark and light to also show the difference between Brutus and his Wife and kids, it almost seems like the artist is having the same contemplation of who was right or wrong. This painting appealed to be because of the story.
