Art and the State: The French Revolution

OBJECTIVES:

1. Be able to discuss the ideals of the French Revolution.

2. Be able to show how these ideals were portrayed in the art of the age, including the art of Jacques Louis David.

3. Be able to show how artists portrayed Napoleon as the representative of these ideals, and as a crusading hero of the Revolution.

4. Be able to discuss the portrayal of Napoleon in Abel Gance's classic film, Napoleon.

5. Be able to discuss Beethoven's portrayal of heroism in the Eroica symphony.

6. Be able to discuss negative portrayals of and disillusionment with the French revolution in art and in music, as seen on Goya's painting and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.

OUTLINE

I. Ideals of the French Revolution

A. Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity

B. Painting: Jacques Louis David's Death of Socrates

C. David's Death of Marat

II. Napoleon as exemplar of these ideals

A. Abel Gance's Napoleon

i) split screen technique
ii) Napoleon as crusading hero of the revolution

B. Jacques Louis David's portraits of Napoleon

C. Gros portrait of Napoleon

D. Beethoven's Eroica Symphony

i) expansion of form
ii) complexity of themes
iii) emotional content: heroic in music
iv) Beethoven's disillusionment with Napoleon

III. Disillusionment with the Revolution

A. Napoleon crowns himself emperor: 1804

B. David's depictions of Napoleon as Emperor

C. Goya's The Third of May, 1808

D. Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture