National Gallery http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/hilaire-germain-edgar-degas-young-spartans-exercising
Degas is best known as a painter of everyday life, who mastered a great range of media from oils to pastels.
This painting, however exemplifies Degas working within the tradition of historical painting; a much more mainstream and traditional subject taught at the academy at the time. Probably based of Plutarch's The Life of Sparta, the scene is the ancient Greek state of Sparta, with Mount Taygetos in the background, the legislator Spartan in the middle ground and the foreground is occupied with a group of semi-naked and naked adolescents.
Sparta was a state obsessed with phyical perfection and so Degas occupies the picture space with these stretching posed youths, showing off their physical capabilities. So obsessed they were, that any inferior infant would be thrown off Mount Taygetos.
Whilst the subject would have been recognisable as traditional, the method Degas has employed is not. His brushwork is robust, but the paint is kept dry, giving a frieze like texture to the painting. The landscape orientation adds to this effect, showing Degas reference to the frieze objects of Classical civilization, as well as his knowledge of the stories. In addition, classical modelling and beauty is lost in this work and the youths appear more similar to 19th-century 'Montmartre types' rugged street children, something which has in the past drawn criticism.
A social history reading of this painting, put forward by Carol Salus, explains the composition of the group of youths as an investigation of Spartan courtship rites, rather than wrestling which is more commonly accepted by art historians.
This painting, however exemplifies Degas working within the tradition of historical painting; a much more mainstream and traditional subject taught at the academy at the time. Probably based of Plutarch's The Life of Sparta, the scene is the ancient Greek state of Sparta, with Mount Taygetos in the background, the legislator Spartan in the middle ground and the foreground is occupied with a group of semi-naked and naked adolescents.
Sparta was a state obsessed with phyical perfection and so Degas occupies the picture space with these stretching posed youths, showing off their physical capabilities. So obsessed they were, that any inferior infant would be thrown off Mount Taygetos.
Whilst the subject would have been recognisable as traditional, the method Degas has employed is not. His brushwork is robust, but the paint is kept dry, giving a frieze like texture to the painting. The landscape orientation adds to this effect, showing Degas reference to the frieze objects of Classical civilization, as well as his knowledge of the stories. In addition, classical modelling and beauty is lost in this work and the youths appear more similar to 19th-century 'Montmartre types' rugged street children, something which has in the past drawn criticism.
A social history reading of this painting, put forward by Carol Salus, explains the composition of the group of youths as an investigation of Spartan courtship rites, rather than wrestling which is more commonly accepted by art historians.
