cial indicators and interpretations of thought and culture in their own right. Thus, one may see art as a way to intermix the revolutionary spirit of the age with important political commentary.3 Two very clear examples of such a mix are the subject of this paper: the neoclassical painter Jacques Louis David, and the strong romantic painter Francisco Goya. Although both focusing on this revolutionary age, these two painters approach this mix from very different angles. This paper will present a brief biography of Francisco Goya, analyze Goya as a revolutionary artist, present an overview of the life of ____________________
2 See the Introductory section of Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution, (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1984), 1 7; for more on the manner that revolution is perceived in the historical sense, see Crane Brinton, The Anatomy of Revolution, (New York: Vintage Books, 1965), passim.
3 Georges LeFebvre, The Coming of the French Revolution, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974, 1989), 42 50.
Jacques Louise David, comment on David as a revolutionary artist, analyze a few specific works of each, compare the two as revolutionary artists, and conclude with the relationships of art to history using Goya and David as test cases.
Goya was born in 1746, and was considered to be the "great independent painter of Spain, founder of no school, and acknowledging indebtedness to Velasquez, Rembrandt, and 'nature.'"4 His greatness was due, in part, to the fact that his art covered such a great range of styles and expressions. He was often viewed as a giant of the Romantic Age, but his work also covers the later Venetian Baroque, transcends into impressionism, and ends with his own brand of very dark and dismal expressionism that anticipated several forms of twentieth century art yet to come.
Goya's parents were members of the landed gentry, thus allowing Francisc...