the history genre and those who produced it were often seen as embodying masculine virtues and tastes
that also assumed in many cases a male viewer keen to see the idealized bodies of female goddesses
(Kriz, 2001, 56). Such tendencies were, however, challenged in the history paintings produced by
Angelica Kauffman, whose representations of male and female bodies were often felt to transgress such
stereotypes, placing women in more traditionally male heroic roles and representing male figures with
less conventionally masculine physiques and expressions (Rosenthal, 2008, 82–83). This development
was facilitated by the fact that not all of her history paintings were multifigure compositions. Some
were singlefigure works representing, for example, saints, allegorical figures or the heroines of
antiquity, in which Kauffman could explore in depth the characteristics of female subjects often relegated
elsewhere to more subordinate roles.
History paintings were more complex and expensive to produce – a large painting taking several months
to complete. They required more display space and were normally restricted to grand public commissions
from royalty, corporations and the church, or to the patronage of aristocrats or financiers with sufficient
status to own large mansions. This meant that for many artists history subjects, while representing the
pinnacle of artistic accomplishment, were not a very good commercial proposition, with the possible
exception (in Catholic countries) of images of the Virgin Mary, Christ and the Saints, often mass
produced for more modest domestic contexts. Paintings, tapestries and prints on historical and
mythological subjects remained popular with the wealthy and the highly educated. This group included
artisans and merchants able to buy, for example, prints of Nicolas Poussin’s series Seven Sacraments or
of other popular seventeenthcentury masters such as Le Sueur and Charles Le Brun (Crow, 1985, 42).
Grand Tourists were keen to buy copies or prints of Italian history paintings. But the tastes of the wealthy
were by no means restricted to these forms of high art and, increasingly, throughout the eighteenth century,
the popularity of the “lower” genres grew among all sections of the artbuying public.
For much of the eighteenth century the history genre was felt to be at risk due to a growing taste for the
decorative, including the vogue for the rococo, which risked undermining its customary gravitas. It was
also subject to competition in the growing art market from the “lower” genres. Félibien’s endorsement of
the history genre reverberated not only through much of the critical and theoretical discourse of the
eighteenth century (as in the words of La Font de Saint Yenne, cited above) but also through the
pronouncements and actions of academies made in response to such threats. There was a strong
connection between academic rank and generic hierarchies. It was necessary to be a history painter (or
sculptor) in order to become a professor, and professorial status was necessary in order to assume the
higher offices of academies. Those in high office could then close ranks in order to perpetuate the status
quo. In France a succession of royallyappointed Directors of Public Buildings looked to preserve this
hierarchy, from the 1736–1745 term of office of Philibert Orry, Comte de Vignory; that of Charles
François de Tournehem between 1745 and 1751; of AbelFrançois Poisson de Vandières, Marquis de
Marigny from 1751 to 1773; of JosephMarie Terray from 1773 to 1774; and finally that of Charles
Claude Flahaut de la Billarderie, Comte d’Angiviller from 1774 to 1789. They were supported in this by
a number of Directors of the Académie royale (including, from 1770 JeanBaptisteMarie Pierre,
1714–1789) and First Painters to the King (Premiers peintres du roi). They took fright at signs that a
growing public taste for “lesser” genres as well as for the decorative rococo style were placing “high
art” at risk (SchoneveldVan Stoltz, 1989, 217–219). D’Angiviller was among those responsible for
commissions of “high art” that sought explicitly to renew the commitment of art to historical and national
subjects.
In a move typical of academies elsewhere, the library stock of literature and history books at the
Académie royale was increased in order to nurture the erudition required by practitioners of the history
genre and a new membership category of “free associate” (associé libre) was created in order to arouse