Le projet de «peinture sculpturale» chez Ingres et son temps historique

At the beginning of the 19th century, the young painter Ingres wanted to become a history painter. This project was nonetheless deeply shaken by the political and ideological upheavals shaking Europe by that time. By nostalgically broadening his artistic culture to the sources of sculpture from the past, Ingres developed in a quasi-scientific manner a painting based on the history of art and the emerging discipline of archaeology. Thanks to a true intellectual quest and the progressive mastery of an increasingly “sculptural” painting, Ingres imitated the original creative gesture and adorned his canvases with numerous elements borrowed from sculpture to better give them a sacred character of eternity, by analogy with the contents of temples and churches. Ingres thus opened the way to a painting enriched by sculpture which renounced serving any temporal power but delighted in a sort of autotelism.