The Humanistic Tradition, Book 5 Romanticism, Realism, and the Nineteenth-Century World

54

TJ123-8-2009 LK VWD0011 Tradition Humanistic 6th Edition W:220mm x H:292mm 175L 115 Stora Enso M/A Magenta (V)

MAKING CONNECTIONS

54

Delacroix’s painting Liberty Leading the People(Figure29.6) is often

compared with David’s The Oath of the Horatii (Figure 29.7) because

both paintings are clear calls to heroic action. But in conception and

in style, the two paintings are totally different. While David looked

to the Roman past for his theme, Delacroix drew on the issues of

his time, allegorizing realevents in order to increase their dramatic

impact. Whereas David’s appeal was essentially elitist, Delacroix

celebrated the collective heroism of ordinary people.

Delacroix was never a slave to the facts: although, for instance,

the nudity of the fallen rebel in the left foreground (clearly related

to the nudes of Géricault’s Raft) has no basis in fact—it is

uncommon to lose one’s trousers in combat. The detail serves,

however, to emphasize vulnerability and the imminence of death in

battle. Stylistically, Delacroix’sLiberty explodes with romantic

passion. Surging rhythms link the smoke-filled background with the

figures of the advancing rebels and the bodies of the fallen heroes

heaped in the foreground. By comparison, David’s Neoclassical

Oathis cool and restrained, his composition gridlike, and his figures

defined with linear clarity. Where Delacroix’s canvas resonates with

dense textures and loose, tactile brushstrokes, David’s surfaces are

slick and finished.

Figure 29.6 EUGÈNE DELACROIX, Liberty Leading the People, 1830. Oil on canvas, 8 ft. 6 in. 10 ft. 7 in.

Figure 29.7 JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID, The Oath of the

Horatii, 1785. Oil on canvas, 10 ft. 10 in. 14 ft.