Simon Schama's Jacques-Louis David and Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People" - Coursework Example

Simon Schama’s Jacques-Louis David and Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People” The first video clip about Jacques-Louis David was extremely interesting since it dwelled on peculiarities of some of his pictures. One of the ideas that surprised me is that the artist saw his contemporary France as Ancient Rome in the time of the crisis. That is the reason why there is a set of pictures the setting of which is Ancient Rome, but they literally reflect the situation in France. The next painting which was described is the one depicting the Lavoisier couple.

It was suggested that the famous chemist is shown as a noble as well as progressive man, but there also was a different side of him. The presenter pointed out that in the later historical events political and social life in France really resembled one in Ancient Rome so life really caught up with art of Jacques-Louis David.The second video clip presented the viewers with interesting facts about Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People”. It was pointed out that this picture is not only valuable from aesthetic point of view, but is historically important as well.

There are numerous symbols that are depicted in the painting such as the allegorical figure of the liberty, the intense violence that happened on the streets. Some details are too small to be recognized at once. For example, one of the people who are killed is in his night gown, suggesting that the government oppressed the opposition in order to make sure that people will not riot, this way reinforcing the monarchy.