Portrait of Pope Pius VII

Last updated
Portrait of Pope Pius VII
Jacques-Louis David 018.jpg
Artist Jacques-Louis David
Year1805
Typeoil on wood
Dimensions86 cm× 71 cm(34 in× 28 in)
Location Louvre, Paris, France

The Portrait of Pope Pius VII is an 1805 portrait of Pope Pius VII by the French painter Jacques-Louis David to thank the pope for assisting at the coronation of Napoleon I of France. Pope Pius appears in David's The Coronation of Napoleon , depicted as blessing the emperor, when in fact he was merely a spectator, assisting at the ceremony with a resigned expression throughout.

Contents

History

The painting seems to have been commissioned by Count Charles Fleurieu, Quartermaster General for the French emperor, though no written mention of a commission survives. It was painted at the Tuileries around the end of February 1805 from life. David seems to have been won over and impressed by Pius's simplicity and deep humanity, choosing to show him in an introspective pose rather than as the most powerful prelate in Christianity. He was paid 10,000 francs for his work and the portrait was exhibited in the Gallery of the French Senate at its seat in the Château du Luxembourg and then assigned to the Musée Napoléon (now known as the Louvre). It was displayed again at the Château in 1824 before being returned to its permanent home in the Louvre in 1827.

David produced three copies of the portrait, assisted by one of his students (probably Georges Rouget), two of which were commissioned by Napoleon for the Musée de Fontainebleau and for the Musée du Château de Versailles. David held onto the third copy and took it with him during his exile to Brussels, and which is now lost.

Description

Vertical in format and with a brown background, the painting shows Pius three-quarter-length seated on a red velvet chair embroidered in gold. He has a peaceful expression and wears a white zucchetto, a white rochet or tunic (of which only the sleeves can be seen), a red velvet pelerine-type camail with ermine cuffs and a red stole with gold embroidery. Pius's arms rest on the chair's arms and his right hand holds a paper on which is written in Latin Pio VII Bonarium Artium Patron (Pius VII, Patron of the Fine Arts). The painting is signed top left with LUD. DAVID PARISIIS 1805.

Some contemporary critics disliked the severe cropping of the picture, who thought it made the pope seem cramped. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacques-Louis David</span> French painter (1748–1825)

Jacques-Louis David was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away from Rococo frivolity toward classical austerity, severity, and heightened feeling, which harmonized with the moral climate of the final years of the Ancien Régime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres</span> French painter (1780–1867)

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ascendant Romantic style. Although he considered himself a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, it is his portraits, both painted and drawn, that are recognized as his greatest legacy. His expressive distortions of form and space made him an important precursor of modern art, influencing Picasso, Matisse and other modernists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palace of Fontainebleau</span> French royal château

Palace of Fontainebleau, located 55 kilometers southeast of the center of Paris, in the commune of Fontainebleau, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. The medieval castle and subsequent palace served as a residence for the French monarchs from Louis VII to Napoleon III. Francis I and Napoleon were the monarchs who had the most influence on the palace as it stands today. It became a national museum in 1927 and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 for its unique architecture and historical importance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Fesch</span> French priest and diplomat

Joseph Cardinal Fesch, Prince of the Empire was a French priest and diplomat, who was the maternal half-uncle of Napoleon Bonaparte. In the wake of his nephew, he became Archbishop of Lyon and cardinal. He was also one of the most famous art collectors of his period, remembered for having established the Musée Fesch in Ajaccio, which remains one of the most important Napoleonic collections of art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson</span> French painter (1767–1824)

Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, also known as Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson or simply Girodet, was a French painter and pupil of Jacques-Louis David, who participated in the early Romantic movement by including elements of eroticism in his paintings. Girodet is remembered for his precise and clear style and for his paintings of members of the Napoleonic family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Empire style</span> 19th-century Neoclassical art movement

The Empire style is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 during the Consulate and the First French Empire periods, although its life span lasted until the late-1820s. From France it spread into much of Europe and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Napoleon Tiara</span> Headwear

The Napoleon Tiara was a papal tiara given to Pope Pius VII in June 1805 a few months after he presided at the coronation of Napoleon I and Joséphine de Beauharnais. While lavishly decorated with jewels, it was deliberately too small and heavy to be worn and meant as an insult to the Pope. In the painting of The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David, the tiara is held behind the Pope by one of his aides.

<i>Napoleon Crossing the Alps</i> Series of paintings by Jacques-Louis David

Napoleon Crossing the Alps is a series of five oil on canvas equestrian portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte painted by the French artist Jacques-Louis David between 1801 and 1805. Initially commissioned by the King of Spain, the composition shows a strongly idealized view of the real crossing that Napoleon and his army made along the Alps through the Great St Bernard Pass in May 1800.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis-Pierre Deseine</span> French sculptor

Louis-Pierre Deseine (1749–1822) was a French sculptor, who was born and died in Paris. He is known above all for his portrait busts and imaginary portraits.

<i>The Coronation of Napoleon</i> 1807 painting by Jacques-Louis David

The Coronation of Napoleon is a painting completed in 1807 by Jacques-Louis David, the official painter of Napoleon, depicting the coronation of Napoleon at Notre-Dame de Paris. The oil painting has imposing dimensions – it is almost 10 metres (33 ft) wide by a little over 6 metres (20 ft) tall. The work is on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georges Rouget</span> French painter (1783–1869)

Marie-Georges-Louis Rouget was a French neoclassical painter.

<i>The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries</i> Painting by Jacques-Louis David

The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries is an 1812 painting by Jacques-Louis David. It shows French Emperor Napoleon I in uniform in his study at the Tuileries Palace. Despite the detail, it is unlikely that Napoleon posed for the portrait.

<i>Napoleon I on His Imperial Throne</i> Painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne is an 1806 portrait of Napoleon I of France in his coronation costume, painted by the French painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Lefèvre</span> French painter (1755–1830)

Robert Jacques François Faust Lefèvre was a French painter of portraits, history paintings and religious paintings. He was heavily influenced by Jacques-Louis David and his style is reminiscent of the antique.

<i>Portrait of Monsieur Bertin</i> Famous portrait of 1832 by Ingres in the Louvre

Portrait of Monsieur Bertin is an 1832 oil on canvas painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. It depicts Louis-François Bertin (1766–1841), the French writer, art collector and director of the pro-royalist Journal des débats. Ingres completed the portrait during his first period of success; having achieved acclaim as a history painter, he accepted portrait commissions with reluctance, regarding them as a distraction from more important work. Bertin was a friend and a politically active member of the French upper-middle class. Ingres presents him as a personification of the commercially minded leaders of the liberal reign of Louis Philippe I. He is physically imposing and self-assured, but his real-life personality shines through – warm, wry and engaging to those who had earned his trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Napoleon and the Catholic Church</span> Relations between Napoleon and the Catholic Church

The relationship between Napoleon and the Catholic Church was an important aspect of his rule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coronation of Napoleon</span> 1804 French royal event

Napoleon and Joséphine were crowned Emperor and Empress of the French on Sunday, December 2, 1804, at Notre-Dame de Paris in Paris. It marked "the instantiation of [the] modern empire" and was a "transparently masterminded piece of modern propaganda".

<i>Self-Portrait</i> (David) Painting by Jacques-Louis David

Self-Portrait(in French: Autoportrait) is the title of a self-portrait painted by the artist Jacques-Louis David in 1794 while in imprisoned at the Hôtel des Fermes for having supported the Robespierreans. It was his third and last self-portrait. He gave the work to his former student Jean-Baptiste Isabey. It entered the collections of the Louvre in 1852.

The French Restoration style was predominantly Neoclassicism, though it also showed the beginnings of Romanticism in music and literature. The term describes the arts, architecture, and decorative arts of the Bourbon Restoration period (1814–1830), during the reign of Louis XVIII and Charles X from the fall of Napoleon to the July Revolution of 1830 and the beginning of the reign of Louis-Philippe.

<i>Napoleon I as Emperor</i> Painting by François Gérard

Napoleon I as Emperor, also known as Napoleon I in his Coronation Robes, is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist François Gérard, produced in 1805 under the First French Empire and currently displayed at the Palace of Versailles. Gérard initially produced the painting as an official portrait of Napoleon I for his throne room at the Tuileries Palace. It was later moved to the Palace of Versailles. The painting spent time at the Louvre, at the Élysée Palace, then at the Château de Saint-Cloud before returning to Versailles in 1894.

References

  1. Bordes, Philippe (2005). Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. pp. 140–141. ISBN   0-300-10447-2 . Retrieved 3 February 2024.