Chapter Four

Art and Revolutionary

Propaganda in France

While Britain prospered after the American War of Inde­ The elected representatives of the Estates General met
pendence, France was plunged into revolution and political first at Versailles on May 5, t 789. Not surprisingly, they
chaos . The American revolt against British rule had shown were equally divided between the aristocrats and the
the French how citizens could fight for freedom and equal­ clergy, who sided with the King, and the members of the
ity, and they did not wait long to follow suit. third estate, who wanted to reform the tax system and
The French Revolution (see Major Events of the French the government in general. Convinced that they could
Revolution, 1789-95, page 96) had a complex origin . Peri­ never gain the upper hand within the framework of the
odic food shortages, a political system in which the rapidly Estates General, the third estate formed a new govern­
growing middle class was entirely excluded from politi­ ing entity, the National Assembly. At a meeting in an
cal power, and an intellectual climate dominated by indoor tennis court near the official meeting room, they
philosophes who preached social and political reform com­ swore that they would not disperse until they had given
bined to make a volatile mixture . The spark that set off France a new constitution. Unable to control them, the
the explosion was an attempt by Louis XVI (ruled 1774-92) King told the clergy and nobility to join the third estate
to raise taxes. The King hoped to legitimate the tax in a "Constituent Assembly" charged with writing a con­
increase by obtaining the backing of a select ad hoc com­ stitution. Meanwhile, he prepared the army to take action
mittee of aristocrats, high-ranking c1ergymel\ and wealthy if necessary.
bourgeois. Reluctant to become the target of public crit­ While these events were taking place in Versailles, food
icism, however, the committee advised the King to summon shortages had created unrest in Paris and provincial French
the Estates General, a political body composed of 300 towns . Hunger, and fear caused by the sight of gathering
elected representatives of the aristocracy, an equal num­ troops, led to riots. On July t 4, t 789, an angry mob stormed
ber of clergymen, and 600 members of the third estate the Bastille fortress in Paris and freed the political prison­
(commoners). This development was unexpected, for, ers held inside . The Constituent Assembly saw only one
although it had been in existence since the fourteenth way to pacify the violent crowds. On August 4 it officially
century, the Estates General had not been summoned abolished the existing absolute regime. Three weeks later
since 1614. (August 27) it issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man
and of the Citizen, which granted liberty ·a nd equality to
all Frenchmen. When the King refused to ratify the deci­
Jacques-Louis David, The Death oj Marat, 1793. (Detail of FIG 4-6.) sions of the assembly, a large mob marched to the royal

Art and Revolutionary Propaganda in France 95

 Major Events of the French Revolution 1789-1795

May 5, 1789 Estates General convene at Versailles

June 20, 1789 Oath of the Tennis Court

July 14,1789 Storming of the Bastille

August 4, 1789 Constituent Assembly abolishes absolute monarchy

August 27, 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which became the preamble of the constitution of
1791 and most subsequent French constitutions

October 5-6, 1789 Parisian mob walks to Versailles and forces the royal family to come to Paris

July 12, 1790 Civil Constitution of the Clergy (reorganization of the Roman Catholic Church in France on a national
basis)

September 3, 1791 First Con stitution ; Constituent Assembly replaced by Legislative Assembly

April 1792 Beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars

August 10, 1792 Attack on the Tuileries Palace in Paris, followed by suspension of the monarchy

September 21, 1792 First assembly of the National Convention; the monarchy is abolished and the First Republic proclaimed

January 21, 1793 Execution of Louis XVI

April 6, 1793 Establishment of Committee of Public Safety

June 22, 1793 Adoption of Second Republican Constitution

July 1793 Robespierre enters Committee of Public Safety

September 1793 Beginning of Robespierre's "Reign of Terror," during which 17,000 people are executed

October 16, 1793 Execution of Marie Antoinette

July 27, 1794 End of Robespierre's reign

July 28, 1794 Execution of Robespierre

July 1794 Disbanding of the Committee of Public Safety

August 22, 1795 Adoption of Constitution of the Year III, which establishes the Directory

palace in Versailles and forcibly took him and his family Marie Antoinette, Before and After
back to Paris .
Meanwhile, the Constituent Assembly proceeded to Nothi ng illustrates th e drama of the French Revo luti on
write a new constitution based on the principles set forth better than the juxtaposition of two portraits of Queen
in the Declaration of the Rights of {vlan . The initial plan Marie Antoinette , painted at an interval of fifteen years .
was to create a constitutional monarchy in which the The first portrait (FIC . 4-1 ), by the renowned French
King would remain , with his powers severely curtailed. portraitist Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun (1755-1842 ) ,' is a tra­
But the King's unwillingness to compromise eventually ditional ruler portrait . The Queen appears in a low-cut
led to the abolition of the monarchy and the proclama­ gown , her formidable skirt propped up by a panier or
tion of the French Republic. A new governing body, the whalebone frame , against the obligatory backdrop of
National Convention, condemned the King to death column and drapery. Abundant flounces, ribbons , ruf­
for treason . Louis XVI went to the guillotine on fles, and tassels enhance the dress , which is compl e ted
January 21 , 1793 ; his wife , Marie Antoinette , followed by a long train . The Queen's towering hairpiece with
on October 16. ostrich feathers accentuates her regal stature . A marble
The revolution ended the old world order, in which bust of Louis XVI on a ledge, and the royal crown on
kings had been sacrosanct and people had accepted the the table , mark her position as the most powerful woman
place in society given to them by birth (see Absolutism , page in Europe.
19). It ushered in a new era of political equality and social
mobility, in which power and wealth had to be earned
4-1 (o pp osite) Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Portrait of
rather than inherited, and in which the law of the land, Maric -Al1toil1ene, 1778-9. O il on c anvas, 9' x 6' 4" (2 .7 3 x 1.94 111 ).
rather than the whim of the ruler, governed . Kuns thistorisc hes Mu seum , Vienna .

96 Art al1d Revolutio1lary Propaga1lda i1l Frall ce

 have , to contemplate without emotion that
elevation and that fall! Little did I . .. dream that I
should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon
her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men
of hono r, and of cavaliers!

David's Brutus

Coincidentally, the official opening of the Salon of 1789

came the day before the proclamation of the Declaration
of the Rights of Man. Jacques-Louis David, by now a cel­
ebrated painter and sought-after teacher in France, had
submitted three paintings to the Salon . The most impor­
tant of these was the belated product of a commission by
the King's Director of Royal Buildings, Count D'Angiviller.
The painting's subject, The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bod­
ies of his 5011sfor Burial (FI C. 4-3), was not unlike that of The
Oath of the Horatii in that it invited the viewer to think about
man's conflicting loyalties to family and society.
After having led the movement to oust the last Roman
kin g, Tarquinius, in 509 BCE, the Roman consul Lucius
Juni us Brutus discovered that there was a plot to reestab­
lish the monarchy. As the plot was unraveled, it appeared
that his own two sons had been involved . They were
scourged and decapitated on Brutus' orders. The Roman
® historian Plutarch , who recorded the event in his Lives,
commented that Brutus' deed was "difficult ... either to
4 -2Jacques-Louis David, QueCll lvIarie Antoinette on the Way to the praise or to blame sufficiently." How, indeed, should one
Scaffold, 1793. Pe n on paper, 6 x 4" ( 15 x 10 c m ). Musee du Louvre,
judge a man who, for the sake of the republic (the res
E. de Rothschil d Collection , Paris.
publica or "public cause") , kills his own two sons? David
addressed this moral question in his painting.
Compare this image of Marie AntOinette, imperious David's painting represents the interior of Brutus' home
and remote, with a drawing of her by Jacques-Louis David, as the lictors (the ancient equivalent of to day's policemen)
made on Octobe r 16, 1793 (FIG. 4-2 ). It shows the former return the bodies of his two sons . As the first body enters
queen, hands tied behind her back, seated o n a wo oden the house on a stretcher, Brutus remains seated on his chair,
cart that is taking her to the gUill otine. Removed from the purposely turning his back to the entrance. He feigns indif­
protectio n of the palace, she is exposed to the prying stares ference , but his gestures indicate his tension . Seated on
of the crowd, as well as to their obscene shouts and angry the edge of the chair, his legs are crossed, his toes curled
gestures . Gone are her tall, powdered wig and the elabo­ tightly. In his left hand he grips the letter implicating his
rate gown that bespoke her unlimited weal th. In her simple, sons, while his right ann is raised in an indecisive gesture
coarse prison dress, with a li nen bo nne t carelessly flopped that might be read as a sign of self-accusation.
o n her sho rt greasy hair, Marie AntOinette, only thirty­ While Brutus tries to be stoical in the face of his sons'
eight years old, looks like an old hag. Only her bold upright deaths, his wife and daughters are devastated at the sight
pose still gives a hint of her former glory. of the bodies. As the mother tries to run towards her sons,
In three years the French monarchy, o nce one of the one of her daughters faints in her arms. The other shields
most powerful instituti o ns in Euro pe , had been annihi­ her eyes, so as not to see the horrendous spectacle . A
lated. France had c hanged for ever, and the fate of Marie female servant turns away, not in apparent indifference ,
Anto inette in particular embodied that change . Outsiders like Brutus, but to hide her grief and wipe away her tears.
watched the events in France in horror and stupefaction . Light plays an important role in the painting, and the
Perhaps Edmund Burke expressed their feelings most suc­ carefully organized chiaroscuro adds significantly to its dra­
cinctly, when he said, in a short speech commemorating matic impact. While Brutus is enveloped in darkness,
Marie Antoinette's death : indicative of his mood of inner strife and despondency,
the group of grieving women in the center is strongly lit.
0, what a revolution! And what a heart must I Yet the greatest chiaroscuro contrast exists between two

98 Art and Reuo/utiollary Propaganda in Fran ce

4-3 Jacques-Louis David, The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies oj his 5011s Jor Burial, 1789. Oil on canvas , 10' 8" x 13' 11" (3.25 x 4.25 m).
Musee du Louvre , Paris.

inanimate objects-the allegorical statue of Rome, set in As the events of the revolution unfolded, however, the
almost total gloom near the entrance, and the highlighted story of Brutus came to be seen as the classical example
sewing basket placed near the center of the painting, on for modern revolutionaries. Brutus was viewed as a revo­
the table. This is certainly no accident. For these two lutionary hero and martyr, who had made the ultimate
objects encapsulate the conflict between nation and fam­ sacrifice to the republican cause. When David exhibited
ily, and between duty and love, that is at the heart of this Brutus again two years later, at the Salon of 1791, one critic
painting. wrote: "Brutus, your virtue has cost you dearly .. . Rome
Although David had begun Brutus in 1787, well before pities you, but Rome will inscribe these words in marble:
the revolution, the painting, when exhibited two years To Brutus, who sacrificed his children to his grateful FatlJerland ."
later, seemed a comment on the events taking place at the
time. Brutus' act of toppling the monarchy and returning
the power to the senate could be compared with the abol­ Commemorating the Heroes and Martyrs
ishment of the old regime and the restoration of power of the Revolution
first to the Estates General and later to the Constituent
Assembly. Few people in 1789, however, seem to have Although David's Brutus became very closely associated
seen the painting that way. Instead, critics focused on the with the French Revolution, it is uncertain whether and
moral tenor and the emotional impact of the painting, to what extent David intended it to be a revolutionary
which several of them characterized as "sublime." They work. When D'Angiviller commissioned the painting in
also commented on the painting's masterful execution, 1787, it was agreed that the work would be delivered in
praising its powerhd chiaroscuro effects. time for the Salon of that year and that it would depict

Commemorating the Heroes and Marty,-s oj the Revolution 99

the legendary Roman hero Coriolanus. David not only a revolutionary event. The huge canvas was to be hung in
failed to deliver the painting in time, he also changed the the meeting hall of the National Assembly, and the funds
subject (though it is not known whether he did so with or were to be raised through advance subscriptions to print
without the count's permission) . To some art historians, reproductions of the painting.
David's attitude toward the commission was merely cav­ Like Copley's The Death of the Earl of Chatham (see FIG. 3­
alier; to others it was nothing short of a sign of rebellion 19), pai n ted a decade earl ier, The Oath was a con tem porary
against the artistic establishment of his day. history painting that involved a great many portraits . Six
In either case, David was certainly interested in the hundred and thirty men had signed the oath, and many
events of his time. Like most members of the third estate, more had been present to witness the event. It was, of
he was dissatisfied with the old regime. As an artist, he course, impossible, to paint individual portraits of all those
was particularly opposed to the French Royal Academy, who had been in the tennis court. Yet it was important
which, like the nation itself, was ruled by a select few who that the leaders were portrayed well enough for the pub­
guarded their own special interests . It was to reform the lic to recognize them.
Academy that David became involved in politics. In 1790 David worked on The Oath for more than a year, prepar­
he joined the radical "Jacobin" group. Between the sum­ ing a large preliminary drawing and sketching the
mers of 1792 and 1794, when the Jacobins were in power, composition on the canvas. He had already made some
he held several government positions. He was elected progress on the individual portraits when, in the spring
deputy to the Assembly, where he voted for the deaths of of 1792, he decided to abandon the painting. This deci­
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette . In 1793 he served as pres­ sion was certainly due to the turbulent political events of
ident of the Jacobin club. In that capacity, he played a the early 1790s. The revolutionaries, though unified at )
major part in abolishing the Academy, which was replaced first, had quickly become divided between radicals Oacobins)
in 1795 by the Institut de France, or French Institute. and moderates (Girondins). So extreme was their conflict
In 1791 theJacobin party commissioned David to paint that, depending on which party was in control, many of
The Oath of the Tennis Court, which, had it been completed, the former heroes of 1789 became enemies of the state.
would have been the first major painting to memorialize When we learn that the central figure in The Oath, a

4-4 Jacques-Louis David, Preliminary drawing for The Oath oj the Tennis Court, 1791 . Pen , brown ink , and brown wash , heightened with white, on
paper, 26 x 42" (65 em x 1.05 m ). Musee du Louvre, Paris (on long-term loan to Musee National du Chateau de Versailles).

100 Art and Revolutionary Propaganda in France

4-5 Jacques-Louis David, The Oath oj the Tennis COUli (fragment of the unfinished painting), 1791-2. Oil on canvas , II '9" x 21'3"
(358 x 6.48 m). Musee National du Chateau de Versailles , Versailles.

Girondin, was guillotined by the Jacobins in t 793, it is position. Although it may seem unusual to us today, David's
easy to understand that for David to complete the pic­ method conformed to contemporary practice, which was
ture would have been not merely irrelevant but outright centered on life drawing.
dangerous. David did not receive any other official commission for
David's preliminary drawing for The Oath (FIC. 4-4), paintings commemorating revolutionary events. Instead,
which was exhibited at the Salon of t 791, suggests how his artistic skills were put to use in designing new repub­
the finished painting might have looked. The scene is set lican fashions and in organizing revolutionary parades,
inside the bare wooden walls of an indoor tennis court. In festivals, and funerals of "martyrs of the revolution." In
the center, standing on a table, the soon-to-be-guillotined connection with the last, he painted three major works in
Jean-Sylvain Baillie (1736- t 793), president of the third 1793-4, all representing men who had died for the revo­
estate, reads the oath to the deputies on either side of him. lutionary cause. Of the three, The Death of Marat (FIC. 4-6)
They cheer him on, waving their arms and shouting their is by far the best-known. Painted in 1793, it represents
approval. In front of Baillie, three liberal clergymen of the Jean-Paul Marat (t 743-1793), a Jacobin journalist who
day-a monk, a priest, and a Protestant minister-embrace was murdered in his bathtub . Marat, who suffered from a
and shake hands. (This detail was a figment of David's skin disease, used to take medicinal baths while writing.
imagination, but it helped to symbolize the new political On July 13, 1793, Charlotte Corday (1768-1793),
order, in which old divisions such as religion and class working for the Girondins, entered his house under false
were obsolete .) A strong wind blows through the open pretenses. Once admitted, she drew out a hidden knife
windows, causing one of the curtains to billow like a flag. and stabbed Marat in the heart.
Bending over the window sills, men, women, and children David had known Marat well and had visited him in his
watch the scene. Pointing down at the deputies, a father house on the day before his murder. He was put in charge
impresses upon his sons the importance of the historic of Marat's public funeral, and was inspired to paint a com­
event that is taking place under their very eyes. memorative work as well. His painting, in effect, was based
In the unfinished canvas, which measures some 11 feet on the memory of his visit, when he had observed the "block
by 20, portrait heads of several signatories of the oath, of wood by [Marat'sJ side, on which stood paper and ink,
painted from life, are placed on meticulously drawn nude and his hand, emerging from his bathtub, [which] was writ­
bodies (FIG. 4-5) . David, no doubt, intended to clothe them ing his thoughts about the salvation of the people." In the
in the end, as we know from the preliminary drawing for painting, Marat is represented after the murder. His body
the painting. But by using nude bodies, he sought to gain is slumped towards one side of the tub; his head, wrapped
better control of the poses and gestures in his final com­ in a linen towel, is resting on the back. In his right hand

Commemorating the Heroes and Martyrs oj the Revo/utlon 101

 4-6 Jacques-Louis David,
The Death of Marat, 1793.
Oil on canvas , 65 x 50"
(1.65 x 1.28 m). Musees
Royaux des Beaux-Arts de
Belgique , Brussels.

he still holds the quill, in the left a letter from Charlotte that Marat's body stands out dramatically against the dark
Corday asking him to receive her. On the wooden block, green backdrop. (David may have been inspired by his
next to the inkstand and quill, we see letters and papers own design for Marat's wake, in which the body was laid
and, inscribed on its front, the words: "A [to] Marat, David." out in the tall, dark sanctuary of an unused church build­
David represents a national hero in a very unusual way. ing; FIC. 4-7). In addition, he has minimized the grisly
His painting differs from Flaxman's monument to Nelson details of the murder, such as bruises and blood stains.
(see FIC . 2-25) and Barry's posthumous portrait of William Instead, Marat's body and face express serenity and dig­
Pitt the Elder (see FIC. 3-17), for example. The allegorical nity. It is not coincidental that the pose of his right arm
imagery and grandiose architectural settings that were cus­ resembles that of Christ in Michelangelo's Pieta in St Peter's
tomary for memorial images in the eighteenth centUlY are in Rome. We are, in effect, led to compare Marat's death
absent here. Marat looks vulnerable, even pitiful, as he with that of Christ-to see it as a martyr's death for the
slouches, naked, in the tub. David has cleverly kept the
image from being absurd, however, by transforming the
ridiculous into the sublime. He uses a vertical canvas, so
"salvation of the people."
It is instructive to compare David's painting with any
one of the numerous prints that were circulated after Marat's
•
102 Art and Revolutionary Propaganda in France
 4-7 Anonymous, The Funeral oj
Jwn-Paul Mnrn t in the Church oj
the Corddiers, 1794. O il o n c a nvas ,
11 % x 18 % " (296 x 46.8 em )
ivlusee C a rnava let, Paris.

4-8 (ri g ht ) Anonymous, In

Memory oj Mnrnt, Friel1d oj the
People, Assassinated 1 3 July 179 3,
179 3. Etching a nd aquatint, 7' 11 " x
II '2" (2.41 x 3.4 1 111 ). Bibliotheque
Nationale , Paris.

death . In nearly all of them, Marat, the "friend of the peo­ Ironically, David, who had once upheld th e ideals o f the
ple," is contrasted with the "heinous murderess" Corday. revolution-liberty, equality, and fraternity-becam e one
An anonymous print of 1793 (FIC. 4-8 ) shows Marat in his of the favorite artists of the man who was to embo dy im pe­
tub casting a final glance at liberty, seated by his side. rialism , Napo leon Bonaparte .
Meanwhile, the fleeing Corday, accompanied by a dragon ,
is pulled back by her hair by the allegorical figure of
Vengeance . Placing David's Marat in the context of this Creating a Revolutionary Iconography
and other popular images, we can truly appreciate David's
unique conception. By eliminating all action, all allegori­ Under the old regime , power had been the exclusive priv­
cal references , and nearly all allusions to Marat's violent ilege of the monarch. The traditional image of government
death , he has created a true icon of the revolution . was, therefore , th e image of the king's body, a perfect illus­
Less than a year after Marat's death , the Jacobins fe ll tration of the famou s dictum of Louis XIV, 'The State,
from power and David lost his prominent political posi­ it is I. " The king's image was enhanced by the use of
tion. Imprisoned twice, he was lucky to avoid the guillotine. emblems, sy mbol s re p rese nting abstract conce p ts related

Creating a Revoltltiol1{]/), Icollography 103

 In her right hand, she holds a scepter, surmounted by the
Phrygian cap. With her left, she grasps the fascis (a bun­
dle of wooden rods and an ax, tied together with a strap).
Fasces were carried by the Roman lictors as the badge of
their power to enforce the law. To the early republicans,
clearly, liberty meant not anarchy but freedom balanced
by law and order.
Since the new republican government had resulted from
revolutionary ideas of freedom, the image of liberty was
increasingly used to represent the French Republic. The
French called their allegorical figure "Marianne," an endear­
ing nickname that rather uncannily echoed the name of
the last queen, Marie Antoinette. Strange as it may seem,
both Marie Antoinette and Marianne filled the same psy­
chological need to personify government, giving a human
4-9 Cast of the First Official Seal o f th e First Republic , 1792 . Archives face and name to the abstract system of political rule.
Nationales , Coll ection of Seals , Pari s

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
to power. Emblems such as crowns and scepters are often l:
)
found in royal portraits (such as the one of Louis XIV in One of the few artists of stature to become involved in the
FIC . 1-1), and also occur on coins, stationery, and the like. creation of revolutionary imagery was the painter Pierre­
In addition, kings often had themselves represented in the Paul Prud'hon (1758-1823) . Ten years younger than David,
company of-or, sometimes, in the guise of-allegorical
or mythological figures. These embodied virtues, such as 4- 10 Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, The Spirit oj Liberty, and Wisdol1l, 179 1.
charity, justice, strength, or beauty, that rulers wished to Black crayon , g raphi te, and white gouac h e o n a nt ique white pape r,
attribute to themselves . Together, emblems, allegories, 12 % x 6 1 11 6" ( 32 x 17 em ). Fogg Art Mu seum , H a rva rd Unive rsity Art
Muse um s, C ambridge, Massachuse t ts
and mythological figures made up the complex iconogra­
phy (visual language) of monarchic power.
Once the old regime was gone, the new republic needed
a new set of images that would advance the notion of rep­
resentational rule rather than absolute power. New allegories,
representing liberty, equality, and fraternity, had to be cre­
ated. An entirely new iconography of power emerged in
the 1790s, much of it conceived by anonymous artists
working in the publishing and minting industries . The alle­
gories and emblems that were born in the wake of the
revolution are found on banners, printed materials, and
coins before they appear in paintings and in sculpture .
The allegorical figure of liberty was an important image
in early revolutionary iconography. It drew on classical
models. The Romans had already created a personification
of freedom in the form of the goddess libertas . As an alle­
gory, libertas survived through the centuries, and by the
eighteenth century she generally took the form of a young
woman, dressed in white, with a scepter in one hand and
a cap in the other. The scepter symbolized the control a
free man has over himsel( the cap resembled the so-called
Phrygian bonnet, worn in ancient Rome by emancipated
slaves to mark their newly won status as liber or free man .
When the King was ousted in 1792, the image of lib­
erty was chosen for the first official seal of the French
Republic (FIC . 4-9). Designed by an anonymous artist, the
seal shows a woman dressed in a Classical garment set
within the words: "In the Name of the French Republic."

104 Art and Revolutionary Propaganda in France

4-11 Jacques-Louis Copia, after Prud'hon , TiJC Fren ch 4-12 Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Th eFrm ch C011stitutio11 , Equality, Law ,
C011St/tution, Equality, Law, 1798. Engraving, 16 x 19" (40 .6 x 50 .3 cm ) 179 1. Blac k and white chalk o n blue pa pe r, 11 % x 18%" (296 x 46.8 cm).
Bibliotheque Nationale , Paris . Pri vate C o ll ec ti o n.

Prud'hon was trained in the provinces . He moved to Paris constitution and two smaller ones of equality and law (FIC.
just months before the revolution, and his career was slow 4-11 ). Although Prud'hon worked on the three drawings
to start. Royal patronage had come to a halt. The aristo­ for this print as early as 1791 , Copia's final print was delayed
crats, an important group of art buyers, were emigrating until 1798 , owing to the constant rewritings of the con­
to escape the threat of the impending revolution. Churches stitution ( 1791,1793, and 1795 ).
were closing as well , and there was not much work for an In FIC. 4-12 we see Prud'hon's drawing for the print's
aspiring young artist. Only portraiture continued to be in main image (note that the print produces a mirror image
demand , since members of the newly empowered bour­ of the original ). The complex allegory centers on Min­
geoisie were eager to have their features memorialized. erva. She turns her attention to the figure of Law, who
In the hope of drawing attention to himself and his holds a scepter with a rooster, symbol of vigilance . On
work , Prud'hon turned to revolutionary imagery. At the the other side of Minerva, liberty tramples the yoke and
Salon of 1791 he exhibited just one drawing, The Spirit oj chain of slavery as she shakes hands with Law. At the same
Uberty, al1d Wisdom (FIC. 4-10 ). In it, freedom is represented time , liberty turns towards the graceful figure of Nature ,
not by a woman but by a nude boy, leaning against a term a young bare-breasted woman with several children in tow.
(an ancient boundalY post) surmounted by Minerva, god­ Nature seems to represent the natural social order, in which
dess of wisdom. In an engraving made after the drawing all men are born free and equal. Various animals complete
(in which the young man was , incidentally, given a Phry­ the allegory. The cat traditionally symbolizes independ­
gian cap ) the image is explained in a caption that tells the ence, while the biblical image of the lion and the lamb ,
viewer that fre edom results in wise government. pe acefully walking together, demonstrates that in a free
In this early drawing Prud'hon demonstrated his beau­ and lawful society everyone is safe. This complex image ,
tiful and highly individual drawing style. Instead of the like all allegories , is a teaching tool. By trying to figure
crisp contours and sparse shading favored by most of his out its meaning, the viewer is forced to think about the
Neoclassical contemporaries (see the drawings by David significance of the constitution itself.
and Flaxman in FICS. 2-16 and 2-24), Prud'hon's drawings
show soft outlines and subtle chiaroscuro. His unique style
would not be fully appreciated until the mid-nineteenth Quatremere de Quincy, the Pantheon, and the Absent
century, when chiaroscuro rather than contour became Republican Monument
admired in drawing and painting.
Starting in 1791, Prud'hon worked closely with the Despite a desire to commemorate the new republic with
engraver Jacques-Louis Copia ( 1764-1799), who repro­ great works of art, few monumental works were created in
duced his revolutionary drawings so that they could be the 1790s. This was due in part to the frequent changes of
sold to individuals and institutions. Together, Prud'hon government, which made any sustained official policy of
and Copia produced a large engraving, approximately 16 the arts impossible. It was also partly due to the political
inches by 20 , with a large allegorical representation of the unrest and lack of funds that the revolution left in its path .

Quat remere de Quin cy, tin Pantheon , and the Absmt R epublican M OlHlll1 C11t 105
4- J 3 Jacques-Germain Soufflot, Panth eo n (formerly Church of Ste Cenevieve), J 757-90. Paris.

Perhaps the most important monumental endeavor fol­ his supervision . Thus the large relief above the main
lowing the revolution was the transformation of the Parisian entrance, which originally represented The Triumph ojFaith ,
church of Ste Genevieve into the so-called Pantheon, a was replaced by one of The Motherlal1d Bestowil1g Crowns 011
mausoleum for the nation's great men (FIC. 4-13). The Virtue and 011 Genius. Ironically, it was destroyed, in turn ,
church of Ste Genevieve had been begun in 1757, under after the restoration of the monarchy in 1814.
Louis XV, according to the designs of the architect Jacques­ For the interior, Quatremere designed an enormous
Germain Soufflot (1713-1780). Even in its time, it was sculptural group representing The Republic. like so many
hailed as a masterpiece of Neoclassical architecture, with projects of the period, it was never finished, but an etch­
its centralized plan , its dome based on that of St Peter's in ing after Quatremere's design (FIC. 4-14) gives an idea of
Rome, and its Classically inspired exterior and interior how it might have appeared . The group centers on the
details. figure of the Republic, a helmeted woman resembling Min­
The church had scarcely been completed, in 1790, when erva . In her right hand she holds a rod; in her left is an
it was decided that it would become a burial place. Antoine equilateral triangle , representing the equality of the three
Quatremere de Quincy, a sculptor, art critic, and revolu­ estates. She is flanked by the winged spirit of liberty, hold­
tionary, was put in charge of this project. In a series of ing a scepter and crowned with a Phrygian bonnet (left),
essays published in 1791 he had promoted the use of art and the winged figure of Equality trampling on a snake,
for political propaganda. The Pantheon project offered a the symbol of tyranny (right).
perfect opportunity to mobilize the fine arts to revolu­ Quatremere's Pantheon became the focal point for a
tionary and republican purposes . number of revolutionary pageants related to the burial (or
To turn the church into a national mausoleum , Qua­ reburial ) of great men of the nation inside its crypt. Per­
tremere blocked up the windows , removed all religious haps the most important of these funeral processions was
sculptural decorations , and replaced them with reliefs on the transfer of the ashes of the philosophe Voltaire from their
revolutionary themes executed by different artists under former resting place to the Pantheon. This ceremony took

106 Art and Revolutionary Propaganda 111 France

 4- 14 Antoine Quatremere de Quincy,
Repuhlique Fral1 qaise, des ign of sculptural group (un exe ­
cuted) for the Pantheon, Paris, 1793. Mezzotint, 15 x II"
(39.3 x 28 cm) Bibli o theq ue Nati o nal e, Paris.

4-15 (below) Jacques-Louis David, The Tral1sJer oj llJe Ashes oj Voltaire to the Pal1theol1, 11 July 1791, 1793. Mezzotint, 5 Ys x 10% "
( 13 x 26.3 cm). Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.

Quatremere de Quil1cy, the Pal1theol1, al1d the Absel1 t Republica11 MOl1umel1t 107
place on July II , 1791 , and was one of the many manifes­ ing ones. For the most part , this des tructive e ffo rt was
tations of its kind organized by David . The artist not only focused on buildings and public sculptures that were hate­
designed the chariot that transported the ashes and the ful to the revolutionaries because they reminded them of
casket in which they were contained (FIC. 4-15), but also the power that the king and, to a lesser extent, the aris­
orchestrated the procession itself. His drawing for the tocracy and the clergy had wielded in the past. It is safe
funeral procession shows that the Classically inspired char­ to say that, for the revolutionaries, destruction had at least
iot was drawn by twelve white horses , held in check by as much symbolic va lue as creation.
footmen dressed in Classical garb. The casket was sur­ Perhaps the first building to be destroyed during the
mounted by an effigy of Voltaire on his deathbed accompanied French Revolution was the medieval Bastille fortress in
by the winged figure of fame . Four empty chandeliers, on Paris, a feared and hated prison in which numerous polit­
the corners of the chariot, symbolized the writer's passing. ical prisoners were de tained by the monarchy. The artist
Today, nothing but the drawing remains of the elabo­ Hubert Robert ( 1733-1808) painted a scene of the dem­
rate pageant of Voltaire . The same holds true for the olition of the fortress , which was exhibited at the Salon of
numerous other revolutionary pageants and festivals designed 1789, a little more than a month after the building was
by David and fellow revolutionary artists. These were elab­ stormed by a revolutionary mob (FIG. 4-16). Images such
orate but ephemeral "happenings," intended for huge as this were powerful signifiers of the need to destroy the
popular au diences. In their transience and anti-monu­ old order as a condition for the new. Indeed , erasing the
mentality, they were the perfect art form for the volatile past was so important that the very absence of a royal build­
world of the revolutionary period. ing or statue could become a positive confirmation of the
new order. Several proposals were made for a monument
to commemorate the storming of the Bastille. One was a
Demolition as Propaganda simple sign that said, "Here stood the Bastille"; another was
for an empty space in the place where the Bastille had for­
While few, if any, great monuments were produced to cel­ merly stood.
ebrate the establishment of the republic, a great deal of The Bastille was only one of many monuments and
energy and attention was given to the destruction of exist­ buildings annihilated or vandalized by revolutionaries. In

4-16 Hubert Robert, The Bastille d~lrill.g the Fi,"s t Days oj its DWlOlitioJ1, 1789. O il on canvas, 30 5/16 x 45" (77 em x 1.1 4 111 ) Ivlusee Ca rnaval et, PariS.

108 Art aJ1d Revoluliol1a,y Pro/)aganda ill France

4-17 TlJe Thil'leel1th -Cel1i1,u), RoolIl ill the Nhl see des M0l1W11fl11s Fral1~ais, Illu st rati o n in Jean-Baptiste Revill e and Jacques Lavallee , \lues Pittoresques et
Perspectives des Sall es d!l Lvhlsee des MOlluilleills Frall fais (Paris, 18 16). Bibliotheque Nationale , Paris

addition to public statues of kings, many medieval churches Not every revolutionary sympathizer, however, was in
were viciously attacked . These bu il dings were hateful not agreement with this wanton destructi o n of the past. In
only because they represented the overbearin g poli tical 1793 the abbot Henri Gregoire (one of the liberal clerics
influence of the church , but al so because many of them re presented by David in his Oath oj the Tennis Court) wrote
contained aristocratic tombs. Not surprisingly, the medieval his famous Rapport. . sur Ie vandalisme n!volutionnaire (Report
abbey of St Denis , which contained the tombs of nearly on Revolutionary Vandalism ). In it he argued that the destruc­
all the French kings and their relatives, was th e hardest tion of monuments was not only shortsighted, because it
hit. In Paris , th e cathedral of Notre-Dame was a promi­ deprived the world of so many beautiful works of art , but
nent target. At the time , the large-scale statues of Old also counterproductive, because these very monume nts
Testament kings on its fa<;ade we re thought to be images could serve as pOinted reminders of a hated regime.
of the French kings . In 1793 the revolutionary govern­ Two years later, the young arti s t Alexand er Leno ir
ment ordered that they be re moved. Most of the statues ( 1761-1839) created a museum with the co nfiscated art
were destroyed or thrown into the Seine river. A few, objects and rescued fragment s of buildin gs and sculp­
however, were buried in a garden near by, perhaps tures-many datin g from th e Middle Ages-that were
by so meone who reg retted their wanton destruction. In held in a depot awaiting destruction . By then, the destruc­
1977 they were unearthed during a routine construction tive fervor had gone, and in years to come Lenoir's Musee
excavation , and they may now be seen in the Musee de des Monuments Fran<;ais came to foster an unprecedented
Cluny in Paris. inte rest in medieval art in France (fig. 4-17).

Dell/olitioll as Propaganda 109