Between the ideal and the real: aesthetics and politics on Jacques-Louis David’s last painting – an interpretation after Benjamin
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2178-0447.ars.2018.132562Keywords:
Art, politics, Walter Benjamin, Jacques-Louis David, new-classicismAbstract
This paper proposes an interpretation of Mars desarmed from Venus and the Graces, Jacques-Louis David's last painting, done during his exile in Brussels, between 1822 and 1824. This painting breaks in a particular way with the new-classical canons, which David founded together with others artists and whom he was one of the most important representative. Therefore, the painting's reception was and is yet very complex and contradictory. Parting from the description of the painting and considering its history of reception, this article aims to show that this work expresses in a quite consequent manner David's position concerning the aesthetical debate of his time and the political situation in Europe during Bourbon's Restoration. The method used for the present interpretation was inspired by Walter Benjamin's figural conception of history, that, however, cannot be discussed in details here.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
The responsibility for obtaining written permission to use in the articles materials protected by copyright law lies entirely with the author(s). Ars is not responsible for copyright breaches made by its collaborators.
The authors have the copyrights and grant the journal the right of the first publication, with the article licensed under the Creative Commons BY-CC License.
Licensees have the right to copy, distribute, display, and carry out the work and make derivative works from it, including with commercial purposes, granted that they give the due credit to the author or licensor, as specified by them.
Licensees compromise to inform the appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
Respected the terms of the license, the licensors/authors are not allowed to revoke the conditions above mentioned.
After the publication of the articles, the authors keep the copyrights and the rights to republish the text exclusively in unpublished books and collections.
