Neue Identitäten – neue Genealogien: Jacques-Louis Davids künstlerische Selbstdarstellung nach dem 9. Thermidor 1794

Christine Tauber

doi:10.1515/ZKG-2016-0026

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Neue Identitäten – neue Genealogien: Jacques-Louis Davids künstlerische Selbstdarstellung nach dem 9. Thermidor 1794

Christine Tauber

Published/Copyright: September 1, 2016

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From the journal Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte Volume 79 Issue 3

Abstract

How and to what extent did the collapse of the Terreur affect the self-stylizations of Jacques-Louis David? Which strategies of artistic self-representation and self-legitimization did he use after 9 Thermidor 1794 and the preceding “patricide” of King Louis XVI, and did they undergo a similarly fundamental change as France’s political culture of the time? To discuss these questions, the article draws upon written “ego-documents” as well as paintings by David, including his famous self-portrait of 1794, which he painted while in prison. The article investigates David’s self-stylizations as autonomous, fatherless artist, and how he compensated for the loss of his father by constructing a new genealogy: claiming for himself the role of the père de l’école davidienne, with his disciples figuring as his “sons” in aestheticis – a model already underlying his Socrates of 1787. David’s aesthetic concept of the pre-Revolution period is outlined by referring to the Horatii (1784) and Brutus (1789). As can be shown, the Republican ideal manifest in both works will much later reoccur in the Léonidas (1799 – 1814), this time to show the failure of a moderate republicanism under the conditions of Napoleonic imperialism.

^* Wolfgang Braungart, Johannes Grave, Klaus Heinrich Kohrs, Sigrid Ruby, Bernd Mohnhaupt, Semjon Aron Dreiling, Wolfgang Hardtwig, Regina Wenninger und einem der anonymen Leser im Rahmen des peer reviewing danke ich für konstruktive Hinweise und anregende Diskussionen.

Abbildungsnachweis: 1 Ausst.-Kat. Jacques-Louis David 1989 (wie Anm. 5), 293, Kat.-Nr. 124. – 2 Kersaint 2010 (wie Anm. 9), 217, Abb. 21. – 3 Kersaint 2010 (wie Anm. 9), 230, Abb. 25. – 4 Schnapper 1980 (wie Anm. 37), 145, fig. 84. – 5 Ausst.-Kat. Jacques-Louis David 1989 (wie Anm. 5), 163, Kat.-Nr. 67. – 6 Ausst.-Kat. Jacques-Louis David 1989 (wie Anm. 5), 195, Kat.-Nr. 85. – 7 Ausst.-Kat. Jacques-Louis David 1989 (wie Anm. 5), 305, Kat.-Nr. 135. – 8 Bordes und Chevalier 1996 (wie Anm. 63), 87, Kat.-Nr. 16. – 9 Lajer-Burcharth 1999 (wie Anm. 35), plate 5. – 10 Padiyar 2007 (wie Anm. 65), 12, fig. 2. – 11 Padiyar 2007 (wie Anm. 65), 44, fig. 14. – 12 Ausst.-Kat. Jacques-Louis David 1989 (wie Anm. 5), 501, Kat.-Nr. 216. – 13 Wildenstein 1973 (wie Anm. 22), Frontispiz.

Published Online: 2016-09-01

Published in Print: 2016-09-01

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https://doi.org/10.1515/ZKG-2016-0026