Neoclassicism, Goya, and Romanticism

Neoclassicism arose in the second half of the eighteenth century as a reaction against Rococo excess, drawing on the renewed interest in classical antiquity fed by the Grand Tour and the excavations at Pompeii. Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) became its central figure in painting, championing clear composition, sculptural figures, and morally instructive subjects drawn from Roman history, as in Oath of the Horatii (1784). David actively supported the French Revolution, recording its events in works such as The Death of Marat (1793), and later became Napoleon Bonaparte's official painter, adapting his austere classical style to glorify the new emperor in monumental canvases like The Coronation of Napoleon (1805-1807).