The collective techniques of an industrial age forced nineteenth century artists to analyze their function and to study closely the physical nature of their medium. Hyde, Minor, Art History's History. 32-35. Baroque Art emerged in Europe around 1600, as a reaction against the intricate and formulaic Mannerist style that dominated the late Renaissance. Baroque art is less complex, more realistic and more emotionally affecting than Mannerism. This movement was encouraged by the Catholic Church, the most important patron of the arts at that time, as a return to tradition and spirituality.

Rosenblum, Robert, 19th Century Art, 17-38.

The goal of self-determination that Napoleon imported to Holland, Italy, Germany and Austria affected not only nations but also individuals. Heightened sensibility and intensified feeling became characteristic of the visual arts as well as musical arts. This tendency toward images of impassioned or poignant feeling cut across all national boundaries. Feeling became both the subject and object of art.

De La Croix, 875. By the mid-nineteenth century, much of Europe had become industrialized, and the generation of artists who had inaugurated the Romantic Movement were dead. In their emphasis on individual genius and subjective experience, arts of the Romantic era handed future generations the basis for their own development.

De La Croix, 874-875. Contour is simply shaded line.

De La Croix, 849. David reworked the classical and academic traditions. He rebelled against the Rococo as an "artificial taste" and exalted Classical art...

Between 1802 and 1807 David painted a series of pictures glorifying the exploits of the Emperor. These works show a change in both technique and in feeling from the earlier Republican works.
Lee, Simon, David I & a. The cold colors and the severe compositions of the heroic paintings gave place to a new feeling for pageantry which had something in common with romantic painting, although David always remained opposed to the Romantic school.

De La Croix, 850.

Vaughn, Will, Jacques-Louis David's Marat. Napoleon wanted to be represented "sitting calmly on a spirited horse," although he actually crossed on a mule. Several copies of the painting were made on Napoleon's orders.

De La Croix, 850-878. Until recently his late history paintings were generally scorned by critics. David continued to be an outstanding portraitist, but he never surpassed such earlier achievements as the Napoleon Crossing the Alps at the Saint Bernard Pass.

De La Croix, 873-78. This was a feature that formed the essential basis of Ingres' painting throughout his life. During Ingres' first years in Rome he continued to execute portraits and began to paint bathers, a theme that was to become one of his favorites.

De La Croix, 875. Critics claimed that the abnormally long back of "La Grande Odalisque" had three extra vertebrae. Interestingly, as a great calligraphic genius his true successors are Degas and Picasso.

Irwin, David, Neoclassicism I & a.