| Jacques-Louis David's The Loves of Paris and Helen (1789), which depicts the lovers embracing in a secluded and sumptuous bedroom, differs from his previous work in its choice of amatory rather than heroic or didactic subject. David perceived this commission as an opportunity to explore new aesthetic terrain by focusing on the complexities of mythology as an intellectual category. Contemporary debate defined the duality of myth: la fable as the sum total of cultural products related to these stories and la mythologie as the complex psychological meanings behind the legends. David's painting is correspondingly bifocal. Primarily, he renders the lovers in a veristic and accurate setting, appropriating the mythological and erotic to his own contemporary aesthetic. Secondarily, by drawing upon the deep literary and visual history behind this story, the artist displays the characters' ambiguity and offers a visual speculation on the psychological forces which lie behind their union. |
