BEFORE traveling to Paris at the beginning of April, I was worried about visiting too many museums and works in such a short time, because I want to examine the masterpieces slowly, I need time to absorb them, and I treasure the moment and the feeling when I see a work for the first time. However by the end, even though I did need to go pass some great works very quickly and some masterpieces might be neglected and overshadowed by other more brilliant ones, the visit still gave me new inspirations that led a new direction to go in my life. This time, it is the work The Loves of Helen and Paris (Fig. 1) by Jacques-Louis David in the Louvre. The influence is deep.
Fig. 1 The Loves of Helen and Paris, 1788, by Jacques-Louis David, Musée du Louvre, Paris
FALLING in love with David is something unexpected. Whenever I saw his Oath of the Horatti (Fig. 2) on the textbook or the screen before, I thought it is something historical, political, and revolutionary, but I didn’t see reasons I could love it more, since I thought I would love those with romantic subjects more. However, walking into the hall of David’s paintings in the Louvre, it totally changed my mind.
Fig. 2 Oath of the Horatti, 1784, by Jacques-Louis David, Musée du Louvre, Paris
It is the colour that captured my eyes first. The colours are not bright or sharp; they are rather pastel and very harmonious. The more I looked at it, the palette appeared more appealing to me. It made me feel so comfortable and reassuring that I wanted to gaze at them for long.
Then it is the composition. As is well known, David’s composition is brilliant. The compositional design is clearly seen. The painterly space is well defined by the architecture and the grouping of the people. No matter how many people are included in the painting or how big an event he is trying to depict, the spatial arrangement is always good, never too crowded nor scarce. That makes him so competent to depict grand historical scenes as well as indoor scenes with fewer people. And in the picture of historical events, there is always the sense of grandeur and full of masculinity. Here, I have to mention The Intervention of the Sabine Women (Fig. 3) . The composition, the crowds of people are again well managed by the frieze-like arrangement, the different degree of the sharpness of figures in the foreground and the background, and the emphasis of the several leading figures at the front. Hersilia, the girl in the middle dominates the whole canvas, whom I especially like. Her gesture is exaggerated, but is so powerful and elegant in a masculine way. She seems to not only control the tragic event by trying to stop the war, but also stretching out her arms, with her feet standing steadily, to direct and separate the whole canvas space, which is so interesting and effective. The white stands out too, feminine, pure, and peaceful. This painting shows the beauty of a female in a very different way; this special representation renders such a beautiful and powerful effect. I love it.
Fig. 3 The Intervention of the Sabine Women, 1796-99, by Jacques-Louis David, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Thirdly, it is the classicism. The classical architecture that helps form the background and the composition has beauty in its own. It fits the classical subjects, the classical-looking figures and draperies; and the dark neutral background also fits in with the pastel colour palette. Everything looks very harmonious and perfect. I tend to like and revere the classical elements more and more, because of their grandeur, their elegance, and their modesty, from which I start learning to appreciate the beauty of the classicism, the aesthetics that David adores and brings back to honor. David’s paintings let me know that it is not only the romantic ideas that could fascinate me, but the pure beauty of classicism could also capture my heart so much.
Finally, it is the romance in David. The one painting that is so different from others of David is The Loves of Helen and Paris (Fig. 4). It is not different as to its general style, but it is different in its mythological subject, its romance, and its very simple composition with very few figures. It is a relatively small canvas and it seems lighter in its historical weight than other paintings of David, but it stands out beautifully into my eyes.
Fig. 4 The Loves of Helen and Paris (detail), 1788, by Jacques-Louis David, Musée du Louvre, Paris
AFTER I came back from my traveling, I was still very obsessed with it for a long time. It is neoclassical in style, but it is also very romantic in a sense. The tenderness, romance, rosy colour, and curving form at the centre of the painting, and the heaviness, steadiness, coolishness, and straightness of the classical architecture merge perfectly into each other, forming a romantic while solemn scene. The lovers, with certain melancholy in Helen’s facial expression, make their romance not purely a sweet and carefree one. The heaviness and other philosophical implications of it make its beauty more long-lasting and contemplative than, like, Rococo romance.
I read into the symbolism, myths, and classical references of the painting, all of which enrich the meaning and elevate my understanding to a new level, and they make me totally obsessed with classicism – this time, not just the neo-classicism of David, but the real classicism of ancient Greece and Rome, the myths, epics, sculptures and wall paintings. Reading the gods’ stories, I am touched and excited. The narrative itself, even not in a poetic form, is like a song full of rhythm and beauty. It makes me want to follow the rhythm to read the poetic narratives. The culture of the ancient Greek seems not totally spiritual or didactic, but there is always a sense of romance associated, no matter if it is a love story, comedy, or tragedy. Gods are not perfect beings; with desire and wrath, betrayal and revenge, they reveal their human sides.
The ancient sculptures and wall paintings are as well, showing high level of naturalism and elegance. Not until I looked at some of the sculptural works had I not realized how similar the figures in the classicized paintings resemble the ancient sculptures. I thought the beauty of Helen and Paris is of David’s own creativity, but actually they all have prototypes long before in the history, at least as inspiration. And the more I look at them comparatively, the more I see how close they are in their posture, volume, muscularity, hairstyle, and facial beauty, almost everything. Gradually I even feel that the figures in the paintings seem to be the Greek statues or relieves having been removed from their original site to the canvas instead of being painted by a more recent hand. Helen in this painting is actually resembling the pose of an Athenian relief: Athena Mourning (Fig. 5), especially her feet. By imitating Athena, David also implies the sadness of Helen and alludes to the tragedy of Troy[1]. Another classical reference is the setting of the painting. David uses a real contemporary scene as the background of the painting – the caryatid room by Jean Goujon (1510-1572) in the Louvre (Fig. 6) which was used in the 1780s to exhibit the royal collection of Greek and Roman sculpture, to pay homage to the French Renaissance sculptor Goujon, whose Fountain of the Innocents (Fig. 7) was rescued from demolition and moved in the 1780s[2]. The reliefs of the nymphs on the Fountain are so intricate and beautiful. Their postures and draperies are much more complex than those of Helen and Paris. I am astonished at their beauty and high craftsmanship of the sculptor; they are high point of the classicism of Renaissance art.
Fig. 5 Athena Mourning
Fig. 6 The caryatid room in the Louvre, by Jean Goujon
Fig. 7 Reliefs on Fountain of the Innocents, 1547-50, by Jean Goujon
References:
[1] Dorothy Johnson, David to Delacroix: The Rise of Romantic Mythology (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2011), pp. 31-32.
[2] Ibid., p. 30
