The importance of Joseph Marie Vien for the neoclassical art

The vision of Joseph Marie Vien had for his paintings were to resurrect a classical style of art that had been led astray. Born in France in 1748 during a time when revolutionary sentiments began cooking, Joseph Marie Vien became a revolutionary in his own form. He began a movement through his neoclassical style. Whereas the paintings of his day concerned themselves more with frivolity and design, Joseph Marie Vien concerned himself with returning to the ideals of classical Greek and Roman antiquity. His style was minimalist in shapes and design, but his goal, as an artist, was for the thematic weight of his pieces to carry its weight.

Joseph Marie Vien was certainly one of the most important painters of the transition period from late Baroque style to neoclassicism. Stylistically, Joseph Marie Vien veered between the neoclassical style that focused lighter colors and linear form and the Baroque style which dramatized scenes with light effects and painstaking attention to facial details. Where Vien was unquestionably neoclassical was through his choice of characters and ideas. Vien’s painting Sweet Melancoly can be regarded as one of the first neoclassical paintings in France inspired by Pompei and Roman antiquity. The Cupid Seller also displays Greek details with interior features of neoclassicism. His piece The Triumph of the Republic, drawn in 1794, illustrates Mars and Hercules drawing a chariot in where a female draped in a classical robe sits. Met with adulation by surrounding mobs, critics observe the numerous motifs that illuminate the drawing: From the olive branch in her hand to symbolize Peace, the woman is also surrounded by otherworldly angels. These figures are interpreted by critics to embody reason, equality, and fraternity. Meanwhile, the undeniable celebration in the Paris centre looms in the background to represent the state’s victory. This drawing encapsulates the epoch and style that Vien represented: Elements of the order and glories of classical society melt into the romantic aspects of the now. The ideals of Liberté, égalité, and fraternité became intertwined with the Revolution. Joseph Marie Vien’s unswerving belief in these ideals provided a thematic foundation for the format of his neoclassical art.

A demonstration of this recurring theme can be found in many of Vien’s paintings. For example, in Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of erotic love and beauty. In the paintings of Vien, Cupid becomes a recurring character. In his piece, Young Greek Maidens Decking the Sleeping Cupid with Flowers, the image of these maidens protecting and showering the innocence of Cupid with a symbol of purity in the form of flowers conveys a powerful theme of love in the hearts of the young. Another painting drawn in 1767 was Psyche looking at sleeping Cupid. This painting illustrates the tale of the most beautiful mortal female Psyche and her love in the form of the immortal, Cupid. The poignant theme of the impermanent mortal protecting and watching over the immortal carries some relevance to the entire movement of neoclassicism. Neoclassical art sought to borrow elements from classical Greek and Roman antiquity because, to these painters, it was universal and timeless. Though our individual sojourn in this world is brief, it is our duty to protect and nurture the immortal.

Joseph Marie Vien established a reputation in the art world that he was made a senator by Napoleon Bonaparte in his age of eighty. He also worked as the director of the school of France in Rome. He is sometimes memoralized as a teacher of his famous pupils who followed his neoclassical style more than his own neoclassical paintings. Among his top students was Jacques Louis-David whose portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte and his neoclassical paintings, such as the Oath of the Horatii allowed neoclassicism to officially become the style of the Revolution. Where Joseph Marie Vien remains significant is not only the timeless and beautiful nature of his drawings, but that he planted the seeds for what was yet to come.