'Marius at Minturnae' by Jean-Germain Drouais: a classical source and the sublime

• Autores: Todd Jerome Magreta
• Localización: Burlington magazine, ISSN 0007-6287, Vol. 153, Nº 1298, 2011, págs. 314-317
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The writer examines Marius at Minturnae, the greatest painting by the celebrated but short-lived French artist Jean-Germain Drouais (1763–88). A precociously talented student of Jacques-Louis David at the French Academy, Drouais moved to Rome, where the Neoclassical environment influenced him profoundly. A defining feature of Neoclassicism was the rigorous study and creative imitation of ancient source material, the goal being not merely to copy but to incorporate the visual, noble, and affective qualities of ancient works. Marius at Minturnae, painted in Rome in 1786, bears the hallmarks of the dominant Neoclassical style: a classical subject, visual severity, linearity, narrative drama, and gravitas. The writer discusses the work in detail, arguing that Drouais absorbed the antiquarian artistic milieu of Rome and pushed the boundaries of Neoclassicism to include the more visually and emotionally evocative notion of the sublime.