(Paris 1748-1825 Brussels) The Goddess Athena surrounded by Vestal virgins and attacked by warriors, design for an antique frieze, pen and grey ink, on prepared transparent paper, 20,5 x 40,5 cm, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Since 1766 Jacques-Louis David was a collaborator in the studio of Joseph-Marie Vien (Montpellier 1716-1809 Paris). In 1774 he was awarded the Prix de Rome for the painting „Erasistratos discovering the illness of Antiochus“; shortly afterwards he and Vien left to Italy, where David stayed until 1780. He participated regularly at the salon which made him quite famous; in 1783 he became a member of Academie des Beaux-Arts. Subsequently he directed his interest towards Greek antiquity. He became friends with the archeologist Antoine Quatremère de Quincy, studied the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann and visited the Herculaneum and Pompej. The present two drawings bear large resemblances with several sheets from David’s „Twelve Roman albums“, which he executed on the occasion of a sojourn during his first two journeys to Italy around 1780. The studies prove his interest in archeology and antiquity: the figures in the frieze are variants of motifs on Greek vases, which David had studied in the publication "Antiquités etrusques, grecques et romaines" (1766-1767) by Baron d'Hancarville.

Literature: Jean-Jacques Lévêque, Jacques-Louis David, ACR Edition, Paris 1989, p. 32 ff; Pierre Rosenberg/ Louis-Antoine Prat, Jacques-Louis David, 1748-1825: Catalogue raisonné des dessins, Leonardo Arte, Milan 2002, p. 583, sheet 21, No. 817: "Apollo and Ariadne surrounded by sartyrs and maenads."