Reviewed: Gods and Heroes, the Catalogue from Paris’s École des Beaux-Arts

This glossy catalogue of paintings, drawings and sculptures from Paris’s École des Beaux-Arts examines its fundamental influence upon Western art during the late 17th, 18th and 19th century. It provides a comprehensive overview of the rigorous training undertaken by students of the school, whose classical approach prioritised mythological and biblical themes, and the study of the Old Masters and Greek antiquity.

Organised into three essays, this catalogue compiles over 200 major works, each illustrated by detailed colour plates. It offers an exceptional insight into the stringent demands the École made upon its students and also the limits enforced upon their creativity. This aim of creating a uniform style would both form the foundations of European art and lead to a late 19th-century revolution, with the likes of the Impressionists rebelling against the homogeneity of academia and striving towards creating a new visual language.

The penultimate section hints towards the latter with a series of sketches by Honoré Daumier, satirising the École and its principles. However, the book concludes with The Immortals, four paintings by Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, whose anti-heroes defy classical heroism with vulnerable recognition of their mortality.

Gods and Heroes: Masterpieces from the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris by Emmanuel Schwartz, £39.95, Published by D Giles Ltd

From France Today magazine