In Search of a Beholder: On the Relation between Art, Audiences, and Social Spheres in Post-Thermidor France

Abstract

Artists in post-Thermidor and Directoire France were expected to contribute to the public debate about the significance of the Revolution and to redefine the function of their art in a fragmented public sphere. Employing a methodology adapted from Rezeptionsästhetik, this article aims to demonstrate that each definition formulated by Hennequin, Guárin, and David corresponded to a different conception of the public for their images. The Triumph of the French People, the Return of Marcus Sextus, and the Intervention of the Sabine Women reveal how these painters used specific narrative strategies to address their audiences.

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Notes on contributors

Stefan Germer

Stefan Germer, Assistant Professor at the Kunsthistorische Institut of the University of Bonn, is the author of Historizität und Autonomie: Studien zu Wandbildern im Frankreich des 19. Jahrhunderts: Ingres, Chassériau, Chenavard und Puvis de Chavannes, 1983. The co-editor of Giuseppe Terragni 1904–43: Faschismus und Moderne in Italien, 1991, he is a founding co-editor of the quarterly Texte zur Kunst, which is devoted to contemporary art and theory [Kunsthistorisches Institut, Regina-Pacis-Weg 1, 5300 Bonn 1, Germany].