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Quelle 2: Stimmen zu Davids Brutus im Salon 1789
(Bild)
1. Mercure de France, I, 24. Oktober
1789, zitiert nach: Robert L. Herbert: David, Voltaire,
Brutus and the French Revolution:
an essay in art and politics (Art in Context), London
1972, S. 126.
2. Affiches, 260, 17. September 1789, S. 2657, zitiert
nach: Robert L. Herbert, S. 126.
3. Année littéraire, 6, 1789, S. 29f,
in Deloynes, 16, Nr. 422, zitiert nach: Robert L. Herbert,
S. 126f.
4. Melchior Grimm: Suite du Salon de 1789, zitiert nach:
Robert L. Herbert, S. 128f.
- The style of this painting is male, severe, terrifying,
and its oppositions are perfect (...) [Putting Brutus
in shadow is an idea that is] new and grand, it adds
to the character the painter has given Brutus, it
completes the severity and the effect of the situation.
- M. David, whose name suffices to attract the attention
of connoisseurs, carries away all the honours again
this year. His Brutus (...) is a composition of an
absolutely new kind, one whose style is noble, severe,
energetic, and one which retraces in the most suitable
fashion a scene as touching as it is terrifying. The
idea of placing Brutus absolutely in shadow is a stroke
of genius, which helps render the figure sinister
and sets off the interesting group formed by the mother
and the sisters of the unfortunate victims of paternal
severity.
- The scene takes place in the interior of Brutus's
home. His wife and his daughters give themselves up
to despair when they see the bloody bodies borne by
the lictors, while Brutus tries to hide from the frightful
sight. One is familiar with the energetic expression,
the pure and correct drawing, and the enchanting and
vigorous colouring of M. David, but it is a pity that
the beauties one finds in this subject – and
there are very great ones – should be obscured
by faults which partly destroy them. More than half
the painting, where Brutus is found, is so dark that
one barely makes out the consul's pose. Would M. David
have feared his inability to express Brutus's suffering,
and would he have thought of using the known strategy
of a painter of antiquity who, despairing of expressing
Agamemnon's grief, hid his face with his cloak? The
group of women is well chosen, in the antique style.
It is perfectly correct, but the contours are cold.
- Brutus is seated in shadow at the foot of a statue
in Etruscan style representing Roma; he still holds
in hishand the decree of the Senate granting him the
right to judge his two sons [error: Brutus holds the
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