When art was truly revolutionary

by María Magdalena Ziegler  Perhaps there is no better source of political propaganda in the 20th century than the Bolshevik Revolution. The world was captivated by the epic of “a handful of workers” who had taken out of the way one of the most powerful empires on the planet, that of the immense Russia.  Not …

Goya and the drama of History :::.

In 1814, Goya painted two masterpieces about his recent history, about the history of his country and the drama in it.

Politics, Art & Revolution according to Jacques-Louis David (Part II)

by María Magdalena Ziegler As we explained in an earlier article, Jacques- Louis David (1748-1825) was very much involved in politics; a fervent Jacobin beside Robespierre. His unfinished work The Tennis Court Oath (1791), opened a new breach in the art field for the interpretation of the present in historical terms initiating a revolution in …

Politics, Art & Revolution according to Jacques-Louis David (Part I)

  by María Magdalena Ziegler The demands of public life in France were very different after the French Revolution of 1789. A new egalitarian political order had to find an identity connection with artistic practice and vice versa. In the Paris Salon of 1791 –first of the revolutionary period-, Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) was not involved …

A hurricane named Eugene Delacroix

by María Magdalena Ziegler   Contrary to popular belief, the famous painting by Eugene Delacroix, Liberty leading the people, was painted in 1830 just after the July Revolution that year, and not in the context of the French Revolution of 1789. The revolution of 1830 would give Louis-Phillipe de Orléans a freeway to become king of …