Ingres historien et partisan de Jules Romain

In his posthumous biography of Ingres, Henri Delaborde reported on the artist’s enthusiastic praise of Giulio Romano, known in French as «Jules Romain ». Ingres had criticized the poor reputation Raphael’s student held among his contemporaries, seeking redress by defen-ding Jules Romain’s « antique spirit » against Raphael’s « grace ». In doing so, Ingres identi-fied a historical model that deserves reevaluation. This paper aims to place Ingres’ discourse in the context of his career and to determine the texts and artworks that influenced his opinion. The connections between his viewpoint and his paintings are also examined. As a source of both aesthetic and iconographic inspiration, Jules Romain plays a special role in the latter half of Ingres’ career.