Figure 2.2 Giovanni Battista Tiepolo: The Chariot of Aurora, oil on canvas, 90.2 × 72.7 cm. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Lore Heinemann, in memory of her husband, Dr Rudolf J.
Heinemann, 1996. Acc. No: 1997.117.7.
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.orgIn France, the Salons (exhibitions held by the Académie royale) and a number of official initiatives by a
succession of Directors of Public Buildings aimed to reinvigorate the moral powers of the history genre,
but this was not straightforward at a time when the monarchy’s own tastes often veered toward the
pleasures of the senses. Nevertheless the Directors regulated the prices of history paintings in an attempt
to make them compare more favorably with the cheaper, more popular genre of portraiture (Conisbee,
1981, 75). Marigny and d’Angiviller, Coypel (First Painter to the King from 1746 and Director of the
Académie royale from 1747), CharlesNicolas Cochin (1715–1790; Secretary to the Académie royale
from 1755) and JeanBaptisteMarie Pierre (Director of the Académie royale and First Painter to the
King from 1770) all made attempts to restore the original spiritual and moral ideals of the Académie,
which had been founded to express the nation’s “glory” (Crow, 1985, 154–161; SchoneveldVan Stoltz,
1989, 216–225). Royal commissions for the Château de Choisy in 1765 included military subjects, with
an emphasis on clemency, generosity and humanity. These paintings (which included the Trajan by Noël
Hallé, 1711–1781; Figure 2.1) were intended to represent symbolically the sovereign’s virtues through
reference to successful and benevolent leaders from ancient Rome such as Trajan (53–117 CE), Titus
(39–81 CE) and Marcus Aurelius (121–80 CE). In the end, the paintings were considered, ironically, too
serious and perhaps even too small to make the larger decorative impact desired for the hunting lodge for
which they were intended (Crow, 1985, 12–13). In 1771, Pierre commissioned a series of paintings for
the École militaire in Paris, which was equally unsuccessful, due to its use of archaic, medieval scenes
(Crow, 1985, 188–189).
D’Angiviller, a member of the hereditary (“sword”) nobility, aspired to reconcile the interests of royal
power with Enlightenment ideology, which included a respect for social utility. In 1777, he instituted a
series of commissions of historical subjects designed to reinvigorate the genre. These were based on the
following broad subject areas: (i) Act of Religious Piety among the Greeks; (ii) Act of Religious Piety
among the Romans; (iii) Act of Unselfishness among the Greeks; (iv) Act of Unselfishness among the
Romans; (v) Act of Incentive to work among the Romans; (vi) Act of Heroic Resolve among the Romans;
and two subjects from French national history: (i) Act of Respect for Virtue; (ii) Act of Respect for
Morality (Crow, 1985, 189). While these subjects focused on themes of publicspiritedness, it has also
been pointed out that they represent the urban public sphere, and the crowds that formed part of it, as a
hostile and unstable environment in which heroes (and, by extension, public servants, the Académie or
even artists) might be expected to function (Crow,1985, 189–208).
In spite of its uncertainties and inconsistencies, the taste of the French court enjoyed panEuropean
influence. Between 1746 and 1764 Mme de Pompadour (1721–1764), the mistress of Louis XV (reigned
1715–1774), did much through her direct patronage and with the assistance of her uncle, Le Normand de
Tournehem, thenDirector of Public Buildings, to stimulate renewed public interest in art: her taste was
largely for Boucher’s decorative rococo mythologies. The most popular literary source for such paintings
was Ovid’s Metamorphoses, from which tales of fantastical human–divine transformations were drawn.
These subjects suited an era and an elite interested in disguise, masquerade, “flirting” with nature and
theatrical entertainments, an emphasis on intimacy replacing the “grand manner” of painting better suited
to the cultural and political prestige statements favored by earlier monarchs (Figure 2.3; SchoneveldVan
Stoltz, 1989, 217–218). Other popular rococo subjects included allegorical representations of the
elements, senses, seasons, times of day, the arts and muses.