DAVID’S STUDENTSGiven Jacques-Louis David’s stature
and prominence as an artist in Napoleonic France, along with the
popularity of Neoclassicism, it is not surprising that he attracted nu-
merous students and developed an active and flourishing teaching
studio. David gave practical instruction to and deeply influenced
many important artists of the period. So strong was David’s com-
mitment to classicism that he encouraged all his students to learn
Latin, the better to immerse themselves in and understand classical
culture. David even initially demanded that his pupils select their
subjects from Plutarch, the ancient author ofLives of the Great
Greeks and Romans and a principal source of Neoclassical subject
matter. Due to this thorough classical foundation, David’s students
produced work that at its core retains Neoclassical elements. Yet
David was open-minded and far from authoritarian in his teaching,
and he encouraged his students to find their own artistic identities.
The work of three of David’s pupils—Antoine-Jean Gros, Anne-
Louis Girodet-Trioson, and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres—rep-
resents a departure from the structured confines of Neoclassicism.
These artists laid the foundation for the Romantic movement, dis-
cussed in detail later. They explored the realm of the exotic and the
erotic, and often turned to fictional narratives for the subjects of
their paintings, as Romantic artists also did.
GROSLike his teacher David,Antoine-Jean Gros(1771–1835)
was aware of the benefits that could accrue to artists whom the power-
ful favored. Following David’s lead, Gros produced several paintings
that contributed to the growing mythic status of Napoleon Bonaparte
in the early 1800s. In Napoleon at the Pesthouse at Jaffa (FIG. 30-5),
the artist, at Napoleon’s request, recorded an incident during an out-
break of the bubonic plague that erupted in the course of the Near
Eastern campaigns of 1799. This fearsome disease struck Muslim and
French forces alike, and in March 1799, Napoleon himself visited the
pesthouse at Jaffa to quell the growing panic and hysteria. Gros de-
picted Napoleon’s staff officers covering their noses against the stench
of the place, whereas Napoleon, amid the dead and dying, is fearless
and in control. He comforts those still alive, who are clearly awed by
his presence and authority. Indeed, by depicting the French leader
touching the sores of a plague victim, Gros implied that Napoleon
possessed the miraculous power to heal. This exaltation of the French
leader was necessary to counteract the negative publicity he was sub-
ject to at the time. Apparently, two months after his visit to the pest-
house, Napoleon ordered all plague-stricken French soldiers poisoned
so as to relieve him of having to return them to Cairo or abandon
them to the Turks. Some of the soldiers survived, and from their ac-
counts highly critical stories about Napoleon began to circulate. Gros’s
painting was an attempt at damage control—to resurrect the event
and rehabilitate Napoleon’s compromised public image.
Gros structured his composition in a manner reminiscent of
David’s major paintings, with the horseshoe arches and Moorish ar-
cades of the mosque courtyard providing a backdrop for the unfold-
ing action. In addition, Gros’s placement of Muslim doctors minis-
tering to plague-stricken Muslims on the left contrasts them with
Napoleon and his soldiers on the right, bathed in radiant light. David
had used this polarized compositional scheme to great effect in works
such as Oath of the Horatii (FIG. 29-23). However, Gros’s fascination
with the exoticism of the Near East, as is evident in his attention to
the unique architecture, attire, and terrain, represented a departure
from Neoclassicism. This interest in the exotic, along with the artist’s
emphasis on death, suffering, and an emotional rendering of the
scene, foreshadowed prominent aspects of Romanticism.Art under Napoleon 78130-5
Antoine-Jean
Gros,Napoleon at
the Pesthouse at
Jaffa,1804. Oil on
canvas, 17 5
23 7 . Louvre,
Paris.
Gros’s huge
painting glorifies
Napoleon as pos-
sessing the mirac-
ulous power to
heal and reflects
David’s composi-
tional principles,
but Gros’s fasci-
nation with the
exotic Near East
presaged
Romanticism.1 ft.