The Importance Of Greek Influence In Art

Women have appeared throughout the ages in multiple examples of art and history. They portray the ambitions and traits most strive for and show great beauty while doing so. Many artists have captured the beauty portrayed by these women, such as Eugène Delacroix with Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi (Fig. 1) as well as Antoine-Jean Gros with Embarkation of Madame d’Angoulême (Fig 2). Both of these remarkable artists showed beauty of women in chaotic scenes, yet secretly they also leaked in traits of the mythological goddesses Athena and Aphrodite through Greek influence. Greek influence spread worldwide, especially in the nineteenth century. This influence greatly changed both of these artists’ life, especially in the scenes they were depicting in the images shown. Delacroix was a French Romantic artist, using expressive brushstrokes and optical effects of color to make his artwork known, yet many times Greek influence was seen in his artworks. He believed that true classical models of Greek theme could be found in

Early in his career, Gros was mostly focused on Napoleon Bonaparte and his military actions. Gros began to record Napoleonic feats, such as Bonaparte at the pont d’Arcole (Fig. 4) and Plague Victims of Jaffa (Fig. 5), which reveals a Greek influence of lighting and style. Gros was also influenced by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni who was partial to Classical Greek. After Napoleon’s death on May 5, 1821, Gros began doing portraits of many high ranked officials as well as Fig. 2, which was one of his last creations before dying on June 25, 1835. Gros’ downfall came when he tried the rising Romanticism , which damaged his reputation which led to his suicide. Greek influence may not have been as noticeable in his artwork, but there were definitely traits that were shown secretly