Log in
Louis David « Une révolution à l’antique »

Louis David « Une révolution à l’antique »

30 min

One of the Louvre’s star paintings, with a dizzying composition. August 1794: David is 46 years old and in prison. Compromised by his association with Robespierre and his allies, he risks the guillotine. He reads the classical authors, and an episode from the founding of Rome inspires the idea for a painting. Once released, he regains his studio, his students, and his former fame. The painting would not be completed until 1799. Shown as part of a paid exhibition—the first attempt of its kind in France—the canvas attracted a considerable crowd. The scene depicts the moment when the Sabine women, who had become the wives of the Romans after being abducted, intervene between Romans and Sabines and bring an end to the war between the two peoples. In this work, David incorporates not only his passion for ancient Rome, but also a strong element of political allegory.

Directed by Alain Jaubert

Your Rating

More from Alain JaubertSee all →

Lascaux: The Prehistory of ArtLascaux: The Prehistory of Art · 1995
Lascaux: The Prehistory of Art
★ 10.01995
MovieDocumentary
Documentary of a network of caves discovered in 1940 in France. Inside are hundreds of depictions of animals painted approximately 17,000 years ago. The site is no longer open to the public, but can be seen here.
PalettesPalettes · 1995
Palettes
★ 9.01995
SeriesDocumentary
An educational French TV documentary series which goes into depth during each episode into the analysis of a single painting.
Le Dernier Regard – L’Européenne, portrait du FayoumLe Dernier Regard – L’Européenne, portrait du Fayoum · 1998
Le Dernier Regard – L’Européenne, portrait du Fayoum
1998
MovieDocumentary
Using a funerary portrait from the Fayum preserved at the Louvre Museum, this documentary explores the art of portrait painting in Roman Egypt during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. These strikingly realistic faces, painted on wooden panels and placed on mummies, reveal a multicultural society shaped by Egyptian, Greek, and Roman traditions. Through this single portrait, the film reflects on identity, memory, and the human relationship to death.
Pompéi « Cérémonies secrètes »Pompéi « Cérémonies secrètes » · 2002
Pompéi « Cérémonies secrètes »
2002
Movie
In 79 AD, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried the city and inhabitants of Pompeii under volcanic debris and preserved—until excavations in 1909—a vast fresco painted a century and a half earlier in a suburban villa. Populated by twenty-nine life-size figures against a vivid red background, this decoration, as famous as it is enigmatic, has given rise to several interpretations, which this film seeks to clarify with the help of documentary evidence.
Duchamp. Le temps spiraleDuchamp. Le temps spirale · 1993
Duchamp. Le temps spirale
1993
MovieDocumentary
It is with regard to the painting "Nude descending the staircase" that Alain Jaubert has chosen to evoke the work of Marcel Duchamp. It is 1913, in New York, and the work of this 25-year-old young man, which depicts different moments of the action of the same character, is causing a stir. Cubists do not recognize it as one of their own, and traditionalists see it as a dangerous iconoclast.
Le Lorrain « Les théâtres du Soleil »Le Lorrain « Les théâtres du Soleil » · 1989
Le Lorrain « Les théâtres du Soleil »
1989
Movie
A harbor illuminated by the setting sun in a city of Italian style. On the left, a small temple topped with a clock. In the background, a large Renaissance villa with its four corner towers. On the right, sheltered by a small fort, a large basin reveals a row of tartanes. In the foreground, a shore where two ships are anchored. All around the port, figures stroll, gather, and converse. Positioned high, the viewpoint suggests a spectator looking down over the scene. A perspective effect is created by the convergence of lines toward an area near the center. Colors, the spacing of objects, grazing light, and the perspective of the architecture all combine to produce a powerful illusion of depth. The low sun generates numerous color combinations and transforms the relationships between the usual tones of objects.
Shitao « L’Unique trait de pinceau »Shitao « L’Unique trait de pinceau » · 1999
Shitao « L’Unique trait de pinceau »
1999
Movie
Shitao, one of the most skilled painters of his time, was deeply imbued with Buddhist spirituality, as he was forced to take refuge in monasteries from a very young age. His painting relies on the simplicity of line and the pure white of the paper. Here, a mountain landscape is rendered in ink on rice paper mounted on a silk scroll. Beneath the apparent simplicity of the subject unfolds a whole universe of hidden correspondences that one must learn to decipher.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec « Une légende fin de siècle »Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec « Une légende fin de siècle » · 1992
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec « Une légende fin de siècle »
1992
Movie
La Goulue, the famous cancan dancer at the Moulin Rouge and queen of Belle Époque Paris nightlife, had somewhat fallen from grace. She was now performing at the Foire du Trône. She commissioned her friend Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) to create two panels to decorate her booth. These two works, the largest paintings produced by the artist (1895), would have a dramatic fate. Resold and cut into pieces by a dishonest dealer, they were reassembled in 1929, shortly after La Goulue’s death. Like Manet and Degas, the painter used the technique of painting with essence: the pigments, deprived of oil, are very matte but also much more fragile. The canvases have lost some of their original brilliance, yet they still depict a cast of characters who, like the gods of Olympus and of classical painting, have become truly legendary figures.
Miniature persane « Les Jardins du Paradis »Miniature persane « Les Jardins du Paradis » · 1997
Miniature persane « Les Jardins du Paradis »
1997
Movie
From the Bagdad School (14th century) to the Qadjar School (19th century), Persian painting has always preserved an extraordinary vitality. Court art essentially involving book illustrations, it had its schools, its royal ateliers, its secret techniques, its great masters. The focus of this film is one of the finest work from the department of oriental manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, a collection of Five Poems (Khamse) by the great 12th century Persian poet Nezâmi. The examination of papermaking techniques, make-up, calligraphy, drawing and painting affords an opportunity to discover a fascinating civilization
Cézanne « La violence du motif »Cézanne « La violence du motif » · 1995
Cézanne « La violence du motif »
1995
Movie
Born in Aix-en-Provence, Cézanne returns to settle there after some journeys elsewhere. He takes as his motif the Sainte-Victoire mountain close by and paints it more than sixty times in different ways and at every time of year. A strange kind of obstination which it was necessary to examine again.
Kandinsky « Figures de l’invisible »Kandinsky « Figures de l’invisible » · 1994
Kandinsky « Figures de l’invisible »
1994
Movie
At the time Wassily Kandinsky painted Yellow-Red-Blue (1925), he was a professor at the Bauhaus. In this work, the painter applies the principles of color and analytical drawing that he also taught to his students and developed in several theoretical writings. The paintings of this period are highly colorful and highly geometric. The three primary colors and the artist’s favored shapes—triangle, square, circle—become true epic characters. “Form is the outward expression of inner content,” Kandinsky said.
Le siècle d'or des Pays-BasLe siècle d'or des Pays-Bas · 2002
Le siècle d'or des Pays-Bas
2002
MovieDocumentary
Rembrandt« Le miroir des paradoxes »Rembrandt« Le miroir des paradoxes » · 1991
Rembrandt« Le miroir des paradoxes »
1991
Movie
From his very first paintings, Rembrandt stages himself. Thereafter, at least a hundred times, he would take his own face as the sole subject of an engraving, drawing, or painting. Such persistence, unique in the history of art, has been interpreted in many different ways. Some of Rembrandt’s self-portraits might appear to express an extravagant man. Yet the objects depicted in them can often be deciphered in quite another way. Through canvases and panels, one can indeed follow the entire history of Rembrandt’s face, but also read the full symbolism of a humanist Europe undergoing profound transformation.
Van Gogh « La haute note jaune »Van Gogh « La haute note jaune » · 1994
Van Gogh « La haute note jaune »
1994
Movie
In october 1888 Vincent Van Gogh who has been living for eight months in Arles, paints his room. A year later, when he is at the Saint-Paul de Mausole Hospice near Saint-Rémy, he feels compelled to paint two copies of this picture which he is especially fond of. It is deliberately simple and yet seems very strange. Vincent wanted to see it as a symbol of rest but the objects in it seem to retreat and space seems to become deformed. Detailed researchs, as in the series "Palettes" has made it possible to reconstitute exactly the room in Arles. Vincent painted it in fact with the detail which fascinated him in the work of the old Dutch Masters. But he brought to it the extraordinary gift of his brush stroke and his new range of colours. That autumn, between the sunflowers, the harvest and the room in Arles Vincent reached the "higt note in yellow".
Pablo Picasso « Les couleurs de la passion »Pablo Picasso « Les couleurs de la passion » · 1993
Pablo Picasso « Les couleurs de la passion »
1993
Movie
The Crucifixion is a rather surprising painting of Picasso's. The painter has in fact very rarely painted religious subjects. And, in the place of a convertional representation of Calvary it shows very strange figures. The sacrifice becomes a sort of initiation ceremony or one of exorcism. Picasso uses, for him, unusual colours, reds, yellows, raw greens which combine in mingled shapes with violent contrasts of colours. Once again the graphic palette and special effects used in the film help to interpret the painting. The work is made up like a puzzle full of allusions and references to the profound personal crisis Picasso was living through at the time. His private and intimate life is joined to the universal drama.
La Dame à la Licorne « Le sixième sens »La Dame à la Licorne « Le sixième sens » · 1997
La Dame à la Licorne « Le sixième sens »
1997
Movie
A hanging composed of the six most famous tapestries in the world. These pictures, reproduced everywhere and in all possible forms, have become the emblems of a certain form of romantic art of the late Middle Ages. Beautiful ladies, fabulous animals, abundant flowers, sparkling colours, everything in these tapestries brings pleasure to the eyes. But once the first marvelling is past, the visitor asks questions. What are these blasons that are so obstinately repeated ? What scenes exactly are these hieratic ladies playing ? Why is there each time a lion and a unicorn ? What do these trees, flowers, various animals scattered all over the surface mean ? And who had these splendours woven ? And for what use? Which artist designed the models ? Questions burst out everywhere. Several of them have surprising answers.

More Like This

Couldn't load this row right now.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter